Ran Vanji Sutar is one of the most reputed sculptors in India. The inborn talent’s story is one that needs to be told. He was born in a poor carpenter family, on a wintry February day in 1925, in village Gondur of Maharashtra. Despite all such struggles at a very young age, he didn’t allow such circumstances to come across his dreams. We are talking about the story of an aspiring sculptor who sought new ways and materials to make an absolute peach of an art.
His talent was spotted by his guruji named Shri Shriram Krishna Joshi, who suggested him to join the Sir J.J. School of Art in Bombay. He came through with flying colours at the end of the course and won the prestigious Mayo Gold medal for modelling.
This great sculptor lauded his teachers under whose guidance he developed drawing and clay modelling. Having gained a wide range of experience, he can now deftly turn his imagination into a reality. Ram is skilled in stone and marble sculpting, but he shines in casting bronze and many of his popular works are in bronze. Say for example- ‘Statue of Unity.’
The 93-year-old sculptor played a significant role behind the making of world’s tallest statue. The extremely talented person is credited with making over 8,000 sculptures in addition to the 600-ft Statue of Unity. His previous tallest creation that drew attention was 45-ft ‘Goddess Chambal’ statue made out of single stone in the year 1959. He is also known for the reputation of creating more than fifty monumental sculptures in the last forty years of his remarkable career.
Ran Vanji Sutar was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 2016 and Padma Shri in 1999 for his immense contribution in the field of arts. He is currently designing a 400-ft Shivaji statue followed by a 250-ft Ambedkar statue, both to be installed in Mumbai once it’s completed. The epic bronze sculpture is the world’s tallest statue measuring 600 feet (182m- 597 ft) outsmarting China’s Spring Temple Buddha (153m) and USA’s Statue of Liberty (93m).
Statue of Unity was designed and built in 33 months at a whopping cost of Rs.2,989 crore. It has been built by Larsen and Toubro and the state-run Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd. It took about 250 engineers and 3,400 labourers to completely construct the statue in 33 months.
