Artists working on the new mural at Indira Nagar MRTS station
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
As of Wednesday, a new lavender-and-purple pattern stretches across the facade of Chennai’s Indira Nagar MRTS station.Here, a peregrine falcon is depicted across one end. A Le Mans race car hurtles across another. At the centre is actor and racing driver Ajith Kumar, clad in gear, with the word “Unstoppable” plastered across the surface.For weeks, commuters travelling down Rajiv Gandhi Salai have watched the mural slowly take shape. Alongside excitement, there is nostalgia for the artwork that stood here before it.Five years ago, the same wall carried a very different story. Featuring 10 monochrome photographic half-face smiling portraits of regular Chennai citizens, the mural carried a message to destigmatize HIV/AIDS. An initiative by St+art India Foundation and Tamil Nadu State Aids Control Society (TANSACS) along with Tidel Park and Southern Railway, the mural was an attempt to stop discrimination faced by people with HIV. This message was relayed subtly, without any words and Chennai-based graffiti writer and street artist A-Kill was commissioned to do the faces.
Architect-muralist Ajith Kumar created the peregrine falcon,
