Michael Jackson statue 'for Neverland' installed in India By P Sivaramakrishnan

BBC Tamil Published duration 8 April 2016

A statue of the late pop star Michael Jackson has been installed in the southern Indian city of Chennai.

The 10ft (3m) statue was sculpted by "diehard fan" Chandrasekaran, out of a single piece of black granite.

Mr Chandrasekaran said he had tried to donate the statue to Jackson's family and install it in Neverland Ranch, but had been unable to do so.

The BBC was unable to independently verify that the family did not respond to the offer of the gift.

The statue was unveiled at the city's Vels University by film star Prabhu Deva, famous in India for his Jackson inspired dance moves.

Mr Chandrasekaran told the BBC that the 3.5 tonne statue was made by six sculptors who took 45 days to chisel it out of a single piece of rock.

He added that the sculptors repeatedly watched Jackson's Beat It music video to get his posture correct, and studied "thousands" of photographs to get his features correct.