Spirited, inspiring: Story of the man who built the Punjab wax statues Twitter laughed at

A Wax Museum in Punjab’s Ludhiana was the butt of all jokes on Twitter on Monday, mostly because none of the 52 “statues” it featured had any resemblance to the personality. Now, the story of how Chandra Shekhar Prabhakar (71) took to making wax statues in 2005 after undergoing a heart surgery is making all those who laughed at him eat their words.

Pictures from a wax museum in Punjab were widely circulated on social media on Monday. The images released by Prabhakar’s Wax Museum in Ludhiana had little or no resemblance to the personalities concerned, leaving the internet in splits. None of the 52 “statues” of Indian and international personalities, which includes PM Narendra Modi, Mother Teresa, Barack Obama, and Sachin Tendulkar, among others, looked like their real-life avatars by a long margin.

However, just when the jokes were getting nastier and over-the-top, here comes the real story behind how the museum was born, courtesy Twitter user Swati Goel Sharma, who goes by the handle @swati_gs.

The wax museum is private and Prabhakar personally foots all expenses. He has recently started charging Rs 100 as entry fee to meet his expenses.

Wax statues of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Mother Teresa.

Even though the museum gets a decent footfall, it is a source of satisfaction for Prabhakar, in a city that has barely any recreational options.

Sharma says Prabhakar is aware of people mocking his work, but can’t help it because unlike professionals, he makes his statues with only 2D photographs as reference.