Sculptor Khambatta's tribute to INS Vikrant on metaverse

Sculptor Khambatta's tribute to INS Vikrant on metaverse
News Representation Image Source: Google Images

New Delhi: Sculptor Arzan Khambatta has joined a league of celebrated names from the field of art, culture, sports and entertainment in the metaverse and will create a limited-edition collection themed around India's first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.

Khambatta's entry into the metaverse with Hefty Art - an initiative of Hindustan Talkies, digital media entertainment company Hungama and ethereum scaling and infrastructure development platform Polygon will ensure the availability of some of his artworks for purchase as digital collectibles in the form of utility-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

INS Vikrant, the maritime warship which played a key role in the 1971 war between India and Pakistan, got reduced to a heap of scrap before it was bought by crew members. Later, Arzan was commissioned to create a tribute to it.

With changing times and a booming online world, Khambatta said metaverse is the future.

"I am excited for this tribute to INS Vikrant. This will definitely help me reach out to a wider audience and art markets worldwide. For any artist, the more viewers they can connect with is better. Looking forward to responses around my sculptures in metaverse now," he said in a statement.

According to Ashish Chowdhry, co-founder of Hindustan Talkies, "With Arzan Khambatta joining in, our world only gets better and more beautiful. We want to create a metaverse that would be an art lover's delight. Every new association allows us to back new artists and take our vision across platforms and regions."

Speaking on the partnership, Hungama managing director Neeraj Roy said it will enrich the Hefty metaverse.

"Revolutionising how art is consumed, and artists are viewed today worldwide, NFTs are just a step ahead in the way it unleashes new limitless possibilities to showcase their work on a global scale," Roy added.

Along with having Khambatta on board, Hefty Art's auction for the M F Husain's art piece "Fury" will kick-off around the second week of May. It will be the first-of-its-kind 'phygital' auction for an artwork by the master. This will be followed by the foray of all Hefty certified artists into the Hefty metaverse.