Madame Tussauds museums in four international cities will now display wax statues of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On the occasion, Modi met his wax likeness in Delhi, before the figures are unveiled at museums in London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok.
“What can I say? As far as art is concerned, the Madame Tussauds team is exceptional at what they do,” Modi was quoted as saying. “What Lord Brahma does normally is what the artists there are doing. Today, I had an opportunity as the prime servant of my people to meet my wax figure.”
The statue has been dressed in a cream kurta with a sleeveless jacket, and featured with folded hands doing the tradional Indian greeting of namaste. Each figure took four months to make and cost approximately Rs 15 million ($232,000). Tussauds also released a video of Modi meeting his wax figure, and adding some final touches to it.
Tussauds revealed that Modi was closely involved with the making of his figure. The Indian PM had held a sitting at his official residence in Delhi earlier this year, to be measured and photographed by the museum's artists. Tussauds has described Modi as a "hugely important figure in world pictures", and said that his "massive social media presence" confirmed widespread public interest in him.
The news was soon trending on Twitter, and led to several jokes.
The one with paint brush in hand must be the Wax Statue. Real Modi is looking at the Camera pic.twitter.com/YNmBSrYoYr— Joy (@Joydas) April 20, 2016
Modi painting "Modi Modi Modi Modi Modi" on Modi. pic.twitter.com/p4XpZC9wlg— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) April 20, 2016
SRK and Gaurav. pic.twitter.com/GVPokeImO1— Trendulkar (@Trendulkar) April 20, 2016
When photoshop license on your laptop expires but you still gotta do it. pic.twitter.com/lCh8DZkmf7— Aisi Taisi Democracy (@AisiTaisiDemo) April 20, 2016
"Now that they're two of us, you can stay home while I go tour the world and no one will know the difference!" pic.twitter.com/Zrh62zmPft— Overrated Outcast (@over_rated) April 20, 2016