CASTING CHARACTERS

At 99, sculptor Ram Sutar is busier than ever-and has just unveiled a statue of B.R. Ambedkar in the US

- Soumitra Das

Ram Vanji Sutar is an extreme case. At 99, he is probably the oldest practising sculptor anywhere. And if size were the true measure of a sculptor's merit, he would perhaps be considered the greatest. In our times, Ram Sutar is best known for his many truly enormous statues.

A Padma Bhushan awardee, Sutar was in the news once again when his 19-ft statue of B.R. Ambedkar was unveiled in Maryland in the US on October 14. Although it was Lilliputian by Sutar's otherwise Brobdingnagian standards, it was touted as the "largest" statue of the key architect of the Indian Constitution outside India. In 2018, Sutar became an international name as the creator of the Statue of Unity, the 597-ft bronze statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Gujarat. It is the world's tallest statue.

Since 1994, Sutar has worked in collaboration with his son, Anil Ram Sutar, who is qualified in architecture and urban design from Washington University in St Louis. The son does the maquettes now, but the father still supervises, making daily visits to the studio. The industry-scale studio and foundry on New Delhi's eastern outskirts is equipped with 3D scanners, robots, cranes and six CNC machines that cut thermocol to make monumental statues.