Wax figures of Big B, Gandhi, Jackie Chan and Tendulkar will be on display

: Madame Tussauds, the interactive museum of wax sculptures and one of London’s biggest tourist attractions with 22 branches across the world, is set to open its 23rd at the landmark Regal Cinema in Delhi’s Connaught Place.

The first and second floor of the heritage building will be occupied by it.

A wide range of influential icons from around the world are expected to be featured in the Delhi edition. Typically, Madame Tussauds showcases local and global celebrities in a ratio of 4:6. However, this ratio has been reversed in India, keeping in mind the preferences and trends in the market here, said Anshul Jain, General Manager and Director of Merlin Entertainments India Pvt. Ltd, at a media interaction on Thursday.

The U.K.-based company plans to showcase Indian culture via a “different form of entertainment”.

Over 50 wax figures

Over 50 wax figures of celebrated personalities from the worlds of sport, music, history, film and TV, will be seen at the Madame Tussauds in Delhi. The layout of the exhibits follows these areas or themes. Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, Mahatma Gandhi, Hollywood superstar Jackie Chan, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and pop icon Lady Gaga are among the host of personalities whose wax figures will be installed.

The museum can accommodate approximately 500 visitors at a go. Preferring to discard the tag of a ‘museum’, Mr. Jain said visitors would be allowed to interact with the life-like figures.

Every wax figure on display at a Madame Tussauds takes over four months to complete and costs ₹1.5 crore. Almost 500 precise body measurements are worked upon by a team of 20 artists to create each wax masterpiece.

The maintenance of the Delhi branch will be handed to a trained local team.

Live action, seen in some editions of Madame Tussauds, will take a while to arrive in Delhi. “We are trying to give more life to the surroundings of the figures, across all our global editions,” said Marcel Kloos, Director of New Openings-Europe and Emerging Markets, Madame Tussauds.