In a week when the city is celebrating the festival of colours, a very different conversation about colour is unfolding at Eco Park.
The New Town recreational hub’s popular “Seven Wonders” replicas—installed in 2017 and a major tourist draw—are undergoing repainting as part of a maintenance drive undertaken by Hidco, which runs the park. But the colour schemes chosen for two iconic structures, the Colosseum of Rome and the Moai Statues of Easter Island, have triggered concern among visitors and heritage enthusiasts.
At a time when West Bengal is positioning itself as one of India’s leading tourism destinations, critics argue that careless colour choices of such familiar global monuments could unintentionally undermine that image.
The original Eco Park replica of the Colosseum featured muted, stone-like tones that attempted to evoke the weathered travertine of the Roman amphitheatre. While not archaeologically exact, the earlier finish harmonised with the monument’s historical character.
The ongoing repainting, however, introduces bold red-and-white contrasts across arches and structural ribs. Visitors have described the effect as “theme-park bright” rather than historically inspired.
The real Colosseum in Rome is globally recognised for its aged limestone façade — subtle, textured and time-worn. It is true that large sections of the structure lack their original outer marble travertine, revealing the underlying red brick as centuries of looting for building materials, earthquakes and the removal of metal clamps have left the monument with exposed brickwork and holes. But what the fresh paint in New Town creates is sharp visual blocks that many feel strip the structure of its architectural gravitas.
An Italian diplomat, who was earlier posted in the city and now lives near the Colossseum, commented on being sent a photo of the repainted structure: “Behind the marble stones there was and there still is a layer of bricks, which you can see in places where the marble was removed over the centuries. But definitely not the colours you see in this replica!”
Bizarrely blue
Perhaps more striking is the repainting of the Moai statues. Originally finished in a sober grey, echoing the volcanic tuff of the originals on Easter Island, the replicas have now been coated in a bluish tone.
The authentic Moai statues of Rapa Nui are carved from compressed volcanic ash, giving them a distinctive earthy-grey surface. Their austere presence is central to their mystique and cultural significance.
Replicas of Moai statues of Easter Island at Eco Park in the first week of inauguration in November 2017
The new blue hue at Eco Park risks turning these solemn ancestral figures into decorative installations. Tourists familiar with the global iconography of the Moai may find the reinterpretation visually jarring.
Samir Debsharma, the person in charge of the renovation on behalf of the contractor GB Construction (which had also built the structures), said dark shades had been chosen to last seven-eight years of exposure to the elements. Pieces of the old structure were taken to a well-known paint brand’s showroom, and an approximately matching shade was chosen, he said. But the New Town CD Block resident could not explain how any shade of blue could replace the earthy-grey of the original replica.
A Hidco official did not accept that there has been any change in colour but promised to take another look.
Maker’s misgivings
The replicas were created under the artistic direction of sculptor Rupchand Kundu when the park’s “Seven Wonders” section opened in 2017.
When contacted by The Telegraph Salt Lake, Kundu said he was aware of the changes and expressed “deep disappointment”. “It pains to see my creations being thus defaced. I had tried to retain the periodicity in the looks of the monuments. Having worked on film sets as art director, I am aware how depth and seasoning can be added to colour and chemical treatment done to give a weather-beaten look to new structures. Such colours cannot be bought ready-made, off the shelf,” he said.
Exterior paints sold in the market, he explained, were polymer-based and therefore were shiny, which rendered them unfit for direct use on such replicas of historical monuments.
Taj Mahal tension
Kundu, a resident of Action Area IIB, is worried about the fate of the Taj Mahal replica as painting the surface would require redoing the meticulous calligraphy in Arabic script.
“I had made multiple visits to Taj Mahal, the last being exclusively to study the calligraphy on the walls, accompanied by an assistant engineer of the Public Health Engineering department, which was in charge of the civil construction of the Seven Wonders. Officials at the Taj Museum had let us look at and copy out-of-print books and other documentation of the calligraphy. We engraved the letters in black stone and chipped them back into the white surface. That process took close to two months,” he recalled.
Kundu now fears that the altered looks of the replicas will reflect poorly on his own artistic legacy, despite his not being involved in the renovation decisions.
West Bengal has emerged as one of India’s fastest-growing tourism states, with Calcutta and its surrounding attractions drawing increasing domestic and international visitors. Eco Park, in particular, has become a flagship urban leisure destination.
But with global travellers well aware of the authentic look of landmarks like the Colosseum and the Moai, visibly inaccurate colour schemes could provoke ridicule on social media — especially in an era where photographs travel instantly across platforms.
During Holi week, when colour is being celebrated across the country, the irony is hard to miss: not every surface benefits from brighter paint.
Write to saltlake@abp.in