Aiming for the Guinness

India's - and probably the world's - largest exhibition of photographs on a single theme is aimed at boosting Maratha pride.

The giant 25,000 square feet hall at the Ganesh Krida Manch in Pune hosted a unique show from June 28 to July 1 "" an exhibition of 40,050 photographs, measuring 6x8", of the 250 forts of the Maratha ruler, Chatrapati Shivaji.

The brainchild of Milind Verlekar, chief executive officer of city-based Vande Mataram Dot Com, the mammoth display was put together by a team of 135 people working 18 hours on the trot.

The exhibition is now eying an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records as the "world's largest photo exhibition on a single theme". Currently, Hewlett Packard holds the record for the world's largest photo exhibition on a single theme for its 33,670 6x4" size pictures of the smiling faces of UK in 2005.

Verlekar, who has been working on this not-for-profit cause for the last seven years, says, "We've sought entry into the Guinness Book because of the wide international interest the platform generates."

He has got support from the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief, Raj Thackeray, for the project, which has been quite an expensive one. "Rs 18 lakh was the cost of expedition to 250 forts, and Rs 12 lakh the cost of the exhibition itself. Besides, there was the registration fees of Rs 80,000 (£1000) with the Guinness Book of World Records."

The photo exhibition, however, is just one part of Verlekar's project. A dedicated web-based digital interactive encyclopedia on Shivaji, www.rajashivaji.com, with over 1,50,000 pages spanning 127 years of Maratha history, is its other leg.

"I started work on this project in 2000 due to the non-availability of sufficient information on Shivaji on the web." Verlekar is being assisted by a team of 128 professionals "" researchers, historians, vernacular-language experts, trekkers, photographers, painters, software developers, programmers, hardware technicians, visualisers, and many others.

The website, to be uploaded in the next five-six months, will have 20,000-plus pages of historical information and the original documents in Persian and Modi (an ancient Indian script used in the 16th and 17th centuries) referred to; over 1,85,000 photographs of 280 forts and places from Nashik to Tanjore; global positioning system maps of all forts; and virtual interactive tools.

A dynamic multi-path search facility, voice interactivity and photographs with multiple captions; a pictorial biography of Shivaji with 100 stories; 2,500 colour paintings on his life and times, and a one-hour animated film (currently in production) on the Maratha warrior will also be part of this website.

Here, too, Verlekar has got public funding. "The Pune Municipal Corporation, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and individuals have chipped in with the finances for the 75 gigabyte website" which, together cost as much as Rs 1.5 crore."

Meanwhile, the interest the exhibition has evoked in many quarters, especially among colleges and public institutions, has enthused Verlekar. "We will hold an exhibition in Mumbai next to spread awareness of Shivaji," he says.