Bengaluru-based street artist Baadal Nanjundaswamy recently made rather viral news when he got an actor to don an astronaut’s costume and ‘moonwalk’ on the Tunganagar Main Road in the city. The pothole-riddled road and its dim streetlights were wittily used to create the illusion that the street was the heavily cratered surface of the moon.
Baadal, who had set out to shed light on the deplorable condition of the road, clearly succeeded, and then some. Not only did the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, the city’s civic agency, take note and begin repair work just a day after Baadal’s tweet went viral, but the artist has been flooded with requests from various parts of India and the world to recreate the scene on their pothole-ridden roads.
Read: Moonwalk in Bengaluru! Crater-sized potholes turns lunar surface for artist
Thanking the BBMP for their prompt response, Baadal posted a video on Tuesday showing an earthmover taking up repair work.
Thank you people for such a overwhelming response and support!
— baadal nanjundaswamy (@baadalvirus) September 3, 2019
Work in progress.. Quick and prompt response from @BBMP. Thank you very much @BBMPCOMM @BBMP_MAYOR and Mr. Prabhakar, CE RR Nagar who is overlooking on ground currently. pic.twitter.com/clgoLAIKzU
In the replies to the tweet, meanwhile, are many people asking Baadal to do something similar for other roads as well. The requests are for different parts of Bengaluru, and also cities like Delhi, even from Hawaii and Louisiana in the United States.
And city market square...
— Ganesh | ಗಣೇಶ್ (@gganeshhh) September 3, 2019
Can you please shoot a similar video in Kalkaji, New Delhi? #justasking
— That Recruitment Guy (@vykasdua) September 3, 2019
One walk in Bannerghatta Road please :D :)
— Vicky Kandavara (@vickykandavara) September 3, 2019
Congratulations. Ur moon walk is very much required in our smart city (mangalore). Though I doubt mangalore officials being this active @vedavyasbjp @nalinkateel @CMofKarnataka pic.twitter.com/2B7vcNtuNL
— Nayan Mulki (@Porludagant) September 3, 2019
Hi @baadalvirus sir, i cordially invite u to Dinne Anjaneya Swamy Temple road, off Haralur Road.
— Ambuj Kumar (@Buji_Boy) September 3, 2019
The craters are bigger there
Only u may do something to grab @BBMPCOMM @BBMP_MAYOR @ArvindLBJP's attention. Our complains from past 2 years may not be sufficient @Abinash70501134
@baadalvirus Boss will you lend me your Astronaut Suit for a day, I would like to explore the craters on Hyderabad roads. I promise our Roads are exact replica of Moon Surface, I challenge it will be better visually than the one photographed by Neil Armstrong.@TOIHyderabad
— seshagiri b.v (@seshagiribv) September 2, 2019
I bet you cant walk here, you must swim ..
— Shriraj nair (@srajx786) September 2, 2019
Nature itself has declared road dead by spreading flowers on it #vidyranyapura pic.twitter.com/0nLgDUBJGM
He needs to come to michigan!
— Amelia (@AmyOlson70) September 2, 2019
I agree he should do this in Hawaii our roads are jacked up as well
— (@puaolena8) September 3, 2019
Are we sure these aren’t Louisiana roads https://t.co/YiRPiuqoQh
— Emily Morris (@empremor) September 3, 2019
Somebody need to this in DC and Maryland https://t.co/4trqeBJdtm
— Rond Burgundy (@Mondkeyboy06) September 3, 2019
This isn’t the first time that Baadal has taken a creative approach to highlight the state of the city’s roads. Known for transforming potholes into artistic installations that pack a point, last year Baadal had transformed a pothole at the Cubbon Park Junction area into a pond, complete with an actor posing as a mermaid too.
Bengaluru: In a unique protest against pothole deaths, an artist turns a pothole into a mermaid's living space in Cubbon Park Junction area. pic.twitter.com/oOTOQFBSHI
— ANI (@ANI) October 13, 2017
Earlier in 2015, after he had placed a faux crocodile in a huge pothole on Sultanpalya Main Road, the BBMP had taken up repair work just a day later, much like the most recent case.
Read: Bengaluru artist puts a 'crocodile' in city's pothole, BBMP swiftly fills it up
The BBMP, meanwhile, has been claiming that it is working to fill up Bengaluru’s potholes on priority, after it was pulled up by the Karnataka High Court last month. Last week, the civic body had announced a Rs 2,000 fine for engineers who fail to fill the potholes.