Mumbai is all geared up to welcome the beloved Ganpati Bappa with great pomp and fervor, the jingle "Ganpati Bappa Morya, Magalmurti Morya" is being heard on the streets of Mumbai. Ganesh Chaturthi has always been celebrated in a grand manner across Maharashtra. People bring the Ganpati idols at their home or the Sarvajanik (Public) pandals with much grandeur and devotion.
The process of handcrafting the Lord begins three months prior to the festival, artists carving the idol are said to have special skills as they make the deity look alive. To see the work in action, Mumbai Live team recently visited Shree Ganesh Shilpakala workshop located in Mumbai at Chembur owned by Krishna Patil who started the workshop in 1975. The idols made in the workshop are made up of Shadu Mati (Clay) and Plaster of Paris (PoP).
Krishna Patil has pursued his degree in Sculpture and Modeling from the JJ School of Arts. He says, “When I got admission into JJ School of Arts my financial condition was not very good and therefore I started this workshop. Back then, I used to make only 6 to 8 inches Ganpati idols”.
We spent time with Patil for some time where he was giving the final touches to one of the idols. He spoke about the whole process of making Ganpati idols after-which he took us through the process practically.
While taking a walk through the workshop we saw an artist carving PoP idol which was quite huge, and on being asked about the same Patil his opinion about the environmental issues, which arise because of using PoP in idols as it doesn’t disintegrate in water easily.
He further added, by saying that, “I usually prefer to make Shadu Mati (clay) idols only also in recent times the demand for idols made from Shadu Mati (clay) has increased due to the environmental concerns.”
Watch the video to know what Krishna Patil has to say about bringing Shadu Mati (clay) idol home and also find out the process of making it.
Visuals by: Ganesh Rahate
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