Accolades for self-taught sand artist from Nellore

He is not a skilled artist in sand animation but a self-taught who recently achieved a place in Wonder Book of Records International for a huge sand portrait of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu in connection with laying the foundation for Amaravathi.

Manchala Sanath Kumar (28), a biotechnology graduate and hailing from a tiny village in Chillakur mandal, is presently working in private aqua firm. He has intense passion for creating sand art in the coastal areas during his leisure time.

Sanath doesn’t know anything about sand art which is popular across the globe for last 50-60 years. He is an artist by instinct and finally learnt it using own creativity. He never attended any workshop or got any training on the art. “I used to play in sand during my childhood days which made me interested on the art,” he said.

“I was taught by nobody. My sister challenged me to make a design on sand. It was really a tough time for me and finally succeeded. Media people covered it. So, it was an inspiration for me and I continued creating such works during my leisure time,” said Sanath about beginning of his career.

The coast is around 7-8 km from his native village, Yeruru in Chillakur mandal in Nellore district and he regularly visits the coast and creates designs and improves his skills. Because of his poverty he failed to know techniques from the experts in the field.

Still, with his own creativity, he prepared a huge work of N Chandrababu Naidu in Krishna River in connection with laying of the foundation for Amaravathi on Oct 22, 2015 that was recorded in Wonder Book of Records International.

“The picture was 52 feet high, 100 feet width and used 1,300 tons of sand and created with the help of around 100 workers who were trained by me. We took 27 hours for finishing the art work. Wonder Book recognised it as a rare piece and provided an approval letter also,” added Sanath recollecting the effort that went in to creating that special work.

He said he was completely in the dark about sand Art due to lacking internet connectivity in the remote village and since just 3-4 years he started observing trends of art stalwarts in the field on internet and realised what challenges he has to face for becoming an artist.

Now, he says he has to learn more about the art but his Rs 6,000 salary is insufficient for pursuing the advanced techniques and trends in the art. He laments that there has been no adequate support from the government. The state government is planning to involve him in Krishna Pushkarams for creating sand art in the river for attracting f pilgrims during the holy occasion.

“Minister for Municipal Administration Narayana has been encouraging me providing opportunity during important occasions. He asked me to participate in the Pushkaram fete also in August this year. I felt happy and am preparing good themes for attracting pilgrims,” he said. Sanath previously participated in Flamingo Festival and other occasion in the district.

He received awards from JCI and TOYI organisations recently. He prepared sand animation on the themes such as women empowerment, awareness on diseases, disasters, anti-terrorism, environment protection, portrait of Abdul Kalam and many others.

“My aim is to become a world class sand artist. But, I don’t have enough financial independence to achieve the goal. If the government supports me in any way utilising my services in tourism sector or others I would do my best for the country,” said Sanath honestly.

By PV Prasad