Amitava Mukherjee with the statue of Birsa Munda. Telegraph picture

Ranchi, July 13: A life-size bronze statue of tribal leader Birsa Munda is waiting at his workstation on the outskirts of the city. Soon the statue would be installed at Jashpur in Chhattisgarh.

Sculptor Amitava Mukherjee is busy putting the final touches to the statue of the leader. He has been commissioned by the Chhattisgarh government for this job.

The sculptor already has to his credit many statues created over the past 15 years of his life. Some of these were made of fibreglass, others of metals like bronze, copper and also clay.

A graduate from Government Art College, Calcutta, Amitava was first associated with Nature Interpretation Centre at Palamau Tiger Reserve Project at Betla in 1992.

After that he sculpted a fibre glass sculpture which was installed at Saheed Chowk in Ranchi as a tribute to martyrs.

Then a literacy lamp, installed at RRDA headquarters, and a statue for Jharkhand Academic Council followed. Amitava also did the landscaping for Surmandir in Jamshedpur.

At the behest of Governor Rama Jois, Amitava worked on the concept, designing and landscaping for Nakshatra Van of Ranchi which is still one of the crowd-pullers among tourist spots in the capital. He was once also appointed a consultant for the Raj Bhavan.

Amitava was introduced to colours at a very young age, as his father Ajit Mukherjee was a self-trained artist. But during his growing up days, Amitava wanted to become a homeopath doctor like his uncle Bholanath Chakraborty.

But when his uncle came to know about the young boy’s dream, he asked Amitava to pursue fine arts and got him admitted to Art College in Calcutta.

After seeing the work of master sculptor Auguste Rodin, Amitava started taking pleasure in sculpting.

When he graduated, he saw his friends go on to pursue higher education, but he was not quite sure if his retired father would be able to support him. His teacher Bandhan Das advised him to fend for himself and asked Amitava not to contact him for a year.

The young man returned to Ranchi and did whatever he could from designing a poster to making stickers.

After a year when they met, Das said that he was capable of earning his livelihood and advised him not to look back. “I never looked back after that,” Amitava said.

Now he is making another identical statue of Birsa Munda. “Some officials of the state administration have asked for a statue of the leader. If they like it, they will install it,” the skilled artisan said.