43 and counting: Statues around Hussainsagar mark shift from Telugu pride to social icons

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The statue of Sarvai Papanna (Papadu) that was unveiled recently on the banks of Hussainsagar. | Photo Credit: Serish Nanisetti

One of the first acts of A. Revanth Reddy after becoming Chief Minister was to unveil the statue of Telangana Thalli in the forecourt of the Secretariat. Weeks later, on May 29, 2026, he inaugurated a statue of film star and former chief minister N.T. Rama Rao at a busy junction in Ameerpet. On August 14, the Chief Minister paid tribute to reformist couple Savitribai and Jyotiba Phule with a statue at the beginning of the Khairatabad flyover on Necklace Road. It stands within sight of the statues of former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and P.V. Narasimha Rao and B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution.

The newest addition to Tank Bund is the statue of Sarvai Papanna, or Papadu, a Robin Hood-like figure revered by the BC community.

“It took us one-and-a-half months to execute the project from a two-dimensional photograph to a 3.5 tonne brass statue,” says Karunakar Vudayar who used the state-of-art CNC machine to mould the brass into the towering statue of Papadu riding a horse with a spear at the ready.

Between these statues, the character of the Hussainsagar, Tank Bund and Necklace Road has been transformed over the past few years. Numerous tourist buses now have a stoppage at the entrance of the Ambedkar’s statue where families, children, tourists get off to go around the towering structure. Some click photographs while others unsuccessfully try to get a selfie with the whole installation. Some other tourists take a boat in the lake to reach the statue of Gautam Buddha.

Only a few decades earlier, till 1989, there were no statues near the Hussainsagar. The rise of statues began with the decision of the then Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao inaugurating a project for Telugu pride with 33 statues of well known personalities. Some of those were damaged during the separate Telangana movement.

But now, there has been a spurt in the proliferation of statues in Hyderabad, more so around the Hussainsagar, where the count has now reached 43.

While the 33 statues on the Tank Bund were built for Telugu pride, the statues of Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai, and Papadu’s statues has more a broad-based appeal.

“So there’s no parallel quite like that (Papadu) beyond India. However, his career of seizing the caravans of wealthy merchants and distributing his gains among the “lower” elements of his own society certainly bear comparison with the legend of Robin Hood in England. He was consistently anti-class, as he successfully stole from the rich and powerful regardless of their religious or political status,” says historian Richard Eaton who has written about the life of Papadu.

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