Capturing the essence of Yadadri

Ever since the formation of Telangana State, a few years ago, the Telangana government has been working at a very fast pace to make ‘Yadadri’ (formerly known as Yadagirigutta) the spiritual capital of the State. Stapathi S Sundara Rajan and Telugu film art director Anand Sai are working round the clock to make this dream take shape at the earliest.

In this context photojournalist, K Ramesh Babu has been following the project developments very closely for the past few months and documenting the progress of the same. Ramesh has had vast experience in the field of photojournalism and has made a good effort to document the same thanks to the support of Telangana Tourism.

The photo exhibition ‘Making Yadadri’ was inaugurated by B Venkatesham, IAS Secretary Tourism and Culture and G Kishan Rao, Vice Chairman (YTDA) at the Rainbow Art Gallery in Paryatak Bhavan. It’s not easy to photograph and document work that is happening in such a rocky terrain and there are some pictures that have been taken from an aerial view by climbing onto the cranes that are working at the site.

Some silhouettes have been taken beautifully at sunset, while there are pictures that also show the vast area that is slowly but surely turning into one of the finest spiritual space of Telangana. “I feel that Telangana is going to get a very beautiful place of worship with modern amenities for pilgrims all over the world and it’s a privilege to see it through my camera being built brick by brick and stone by stone.

Other than Yadadri, work is going on in Allagadda (Kurnool district), Kotappakonda (Guntur), Martur (Prakasham district), Kammavaripalle (Anantapur district) and Koheda (Karimnagar district) and I have visited all these places to photograph the progress of the project. It was hectic but worth the effort,” Ramesh Babu shares.

By Jaywant Naidu