Wax sculpture museum opens today

People visiting the ‘City of Palaces’ have another attraction this Dasara, as the state’s first celebrity wax sculpture museum, Chamundeshwari Celebrity Wax Museum, is all set to open on Sunday.

Wax sculptures of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, Spiderman, Michael Jackson and Mr Bean are on display at the museum near the Central Reserve Police Force Grounds on Maharana Pratap Road in the city.

It was a dream for artist Umesh Shetty, who is from Honnavar in Uttar Kannada district. After his masters in Arts, he moved to Maharashtra as a drawing teacher. He taught drawing to schoolchildren in Mumbai and in Pune. While working for a school in Pune, he developed an interest in the making of wax sculptures, hence he studied on Madame Tussauds wax museum in London and started to work on wax sculptures on his own.

To prepare wax sculptures, Shetty has a team of 12 artists. At present, he is the owner of three wax sculpture museums in the country. Two of them are in Maharashtra. Initially Umesh had a plan to start this wax Muesuem in Goa, however, due to an emotional attachment with Karnataka, he decided to start it in Mysuru.

Speaking to DH, Shetty said, "Mysuru is a good place with a rich cultural heritage which attracts lots of tourists. So, I decided to start the museum here. I have completed 48 wax sculptures for Mysuru museum and three of them are under process."

Shetty said he has a dream of preparing wax sculptures of all the kings of the Mysuru kingdom. "We prepare wax sculptures using Japan Wax and bees wax for the sculptures. To make a single wax sculpture, it requires 10 kg of wax. Shetty has produced nearly 150 wax sculptures to various museums across the country.

Umesh said he has 48 wax statues, including wax sculptures of famous personalities including Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallbhai Patel, Bhagat Singh, Sir M Visveshwaraya, Albert Einstein, 14th Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, King Maharana Prathap, APJ Abdul Kalam, Rajinikant, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Saina Nehwal, Kalpana Chawla, cinema artists Dr Rajkumar, Vishnuvardhan, Shankar Nag, wrestler Kaali, Satya Sai Baba, Baba Ramdev, Amith Shah, Ajay Devgan, Adolf Hitler, James Bond, etc, at present.

With regard to entry fees to the wax sculpture museum and also photography with wax sculptures, Shetty said, he has to decide on the cost of tickets.