Industrialist Shrinivas Gupta and his daughters with the silicone wax statue of his dead wife, Madhavi.
At an industrialist's housewarming ceremony in Karnataka, guests were stunned to see his wife sitting on a sofa at the entrance. Srinivas Murthy's wife Madhavi had died three years ago in a car crash.
It was Madhavi's dream home and her family couldn't think of moving in without her.
The answer was a silicone statue so lifelike that the guests were speechless when they walked into the industrialist's new house in Koppala district, some 353 km from Bengaluru, and saw the lady of the house, smiling, in a pink silk saree.
According to Mr Murthy, the statue was installed just ahead of the ceremony so his wife, Madhavi, could always live in her "dream home".
"It is a great feeling to have my wife again at my home; this was her dream home. The house was designed as per her wishes and she alone was monitoring the progress of the construction of the house," Mr Murthy said, adding he and his daughters missed her terribly.
"Artist Shreedhar Murthy from Bengaluru took a year to make the statue. Silicone was used instead of wax for durability," he said, adding that the statue was built inside the house with the help of their architect Ranghannanavar.
"Our architect suggested I get a silicone statue instead of a wax statue as we live in Koppal, which is a hot place, and an AC can't be used all the time to maintain correct temperature for wax," Mr Murthy added.