Karan Acharya Whose 'Angry Hanuman' Poster Was Praised by Narendra Modi Says he Portrayed God's Attitude

Mangaluru-based 29-year-old artiste Karan Acharya expressed excitement after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday applauded his viral 'Angry Hanuman' portrait. While he thanked the Prime Minister for recognising his work, Acharya said that it was Hanuman's attitude face and not angry face. Modi appreciated Acharya's work while speaking at a Karnataka election rally. Speaking to ANI about the viral Hanuman image, he said, "It is not angry, this is Hanuman's attitude face. I'm happy to see my art everywhere. I was both shocked and happy."

Acharya's half vermilion-half black poster became quite popular across the country with people sticking it on their car's rearview mirrors, as phone's wallpapers and caricatures on T-shirts. The poster had also received flak for portraying a communal angle, however, Acharya said he had no such intentions.

Acharya said, "We wanted to make a unique one so that is the reason I thought to portray an attitude on Hanuman. Generally, we get many images of Hanuman on Google but this is little different where I used orange as a background and just a single colour on it. The orange colour which I have used is just to symbolize the god but not in the support any political parties. When I did this portrait it just took half an hour for me as I have very less time."

Modi during his speech said, "I want to applaud artiste Karan Acharya whose Hanuman portrait has captured the imagination of people across India. This is a laudable achievement and is the power of his achievement, talent and imagination. This is the pride of Mangaluru. All TV channels queued up for his interview."

Acharya said he made the poster for Ganesh Chathurthi after his friends forced him to. He said, "We thought of many other gods but finally stuck at lord hanuman as we were devotees of him. Heaping praises on Acharya's painting, Modi had slammed the Congress for criticising the artwork, saying they could not handle the magnificence of Acharya's imaginative art. The PM also claimed that they tried to stir up a controversy as they could not digest its success.

Talking about the popularity of his artwork, Acharya said, "I am very happy that my painting went such viral in just three years. What more could an artist want than seeing his painting everywhere. My friends were calling me continuously on Sunday, I thought they were calling normally but one of my friends texted me that the Prime Minister praised my painting. I didn't believe at first but later when I saw his video I was shocked and speechless. I feel it as the biggest achievement where my work grabbed the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. My family was a great support for me since my childhood who encouraged me and I got inspired by them as they were also artists. I suggest every artist work on their passion later the fame will come to them."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 08, 2018 12:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).