Virat Kohli’s newly unveiled wax figure bears a strong resemblance to the cricketer unlike other statuettes, discovers Abheet Gupta
Virat Kohli has taken his position on the front foot position just before hitting the ball. His left foot is in front of the right and the bat is held mid-air and his eyes are totally focussed towards where the ball is coming from. At the other end is cricket icon Kapil Dev in a bowling position. Cricket utopia or time travelIJ Neither.
A new sculpture of Virat has just been unveiled at the Madame Tussauds’ museum and placed in front of Kapil Dev to create a panorama where it seems that the Kohli is about to play a shot against a ball thrown by Dev.
In India, cricket is a religion. And that means that the Gods have to be consecrated at the newest temple dedicated to art. At Madame Tussaud’s after the statues of cricketers Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar were unveiled, new age icon Virat Kohli has followed suit. He shares the same room as the sports legends like Cristiano Ronaldo and lionel Messi.
Ahead of the unveiling of his wax statue, Kohli tweeted to invite his fans to visit Madame Tussads and take selfies with his wax figure. Once unveiled, the figure displayed certain exceptional skills of craftsmanship as the likeness to him was really close. It covers every minute detail, be it facial expressions, attitude, hairstyle, beard or the jersey he was wearing. “It was very important to display the exact same attitude that he plays with to achieve an authentic sculpture. Also, you can see that the focus of his eyes has been displayed in the manner that he looks towards the ball before playing a shot”, said Anshul Jain, general manager and the director of Merlin Entertainments India Pvt. ltd.
The figure displays Virat in the international jersey of India with Virat 18 written on the back. Apart from this, his figure carries branded bat and has pads and gloves strapped on along with wrist bands on both hands as well as a bracelet on the right one. The craftsmen haven’t missed out on the tattoo on his left hand which is exactly like the one he has. His hairstyle, eyebrows, eyelashes and beard are also similar to what he wears in real life. “Virat is one of the best batsmen in today’s international cricket and his contribution to Indian cricket while leading the team and while playing himself is exceptional,” replied Jain when asked about why the organisation chose Virat among so many talented cricketers. He added that while looking at the wax figure, nobody could say that’ it’s made of wax and is not Virat himself. All this was successfully accomplished because the team of Madame Tussauds’ expert artists came from london to meet Virat, where they took over 200 specific measurements and images so that they could create an authentic and attractive figure. “If some other cricketer also reaches the same level as Virat or exceeds that level, we would definitely make his figure too and will surprise people again with more fantastic figures in future”, Jain emphasised.