When Coimbatore-based artist Seevaga Valuthy came out of the theatre after watching Mari Selvaraj and Dhanush’s Karnan last April, he decided to pay a tribute to the team. As in his previous outings, where he had made a 3D illustration of a portrait of Kamal Haasan using 3,072 cups and a string art of the actor with 13,000 nails, he wanted to take the path less trodden this time as well. And he chose staple art for the same.
“When I did some research, I learnt that not many have experimented with staple pins and it was an interesting challenge to take up. The idea was to make a portrait of Karnan (Dhanush) and Kaattu Pechi (the goddess in the film). I have been planning to do an artwork on Dhanush ever since he won the National Award for Asuran as I was quite blown away by his portrayal of Sivasamy in the film. And Karnan gave fresh impetus to the idea. This is a tribute to one of the finest actors and storytellers of this generation, Dhanush and Mari Selvaraj sir.”
Talking about the one-month-long process of making the portrait, Seevaga says, “I sketched the image on an MDF board. I then stapled the pins manually. I ended up using around 1 million pins by the time I finished. My brother offered a helping hand. After 30 days, I finished the portrait and sent it for the records.”
Today, an elated Seevaga says that he is completely satisfied with the outcome. “I made it to the International Book of Records for the ‘largest staple art portrait of actor Dhanush’ and the ‘largest string art portrait of actor Kamal Haasan’,” he signs off with a smile.
Pooja Devariya’s diving reel grabs attention online
Kaithi controversy: Producer's statement on sequel and remake ban
