Rajasekharan Parameswaran

Rajasekharan Parameswaran (born 1964), also known as Marthandam Rajasekharan, is an Indian art director and self-taught painter from Tamil Nadu. He holds two Guinness World Records. The first one, from 2008, is for the world's largest easel painting. The easel is 56.5' tall and 31' wide and holds a 25' tall and 50' wide portrait of Elamkulam Namboodiripad. In 2010, the painting was also included in the Limca Book of Records. His second Guinness World Record is for the largest Burr puzzle (known as 'edakoodam' in Malayalam), with each piece of the puzzle measuring 24' x 2' x 2', unveiled on 27 December 2017 at The Ravis Hotels and Resorts, Kollam, Kerala. This is the second successful attempt at setting this record.
Parameswaran made his debut in film as art director with "Naalu Pennungal" (2007), for which he won the best art director state award.
Personal life.
Born in 1964, Parameswaran lives in Kaliyikkavila, Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, India. He is married to Valsamma and has two daughters.
Career.
Parameswaran worked as a statistics compiler, receptionist, medical representative, and a teacher before becoming an artist. He has no formal training in arts but has instead originated and developed his own style and taught himself pencil sketching and oil-painting. Parameswaran made his debut in films as assistant director with Adoor Gopalakrishnan's film Nizhalkuthu. His first film as art director was the 2007 Naalu Pennungal, directed by Adoor, for which he also won a state award. Parameswaran has since acted as art director for a number of other films including Oru Pennum Randaanum, Maestro's Memoirs, Mohiniyattam, Magizhchi, and Pinneyum.
In 2008, Parameswaran received a Guinness World Record for creating the largest easel painting. It is a portrait of former chief minister of Kerala Elamkulam Namboodiripad, measuring 25' height and 50' width, and is held by a 56.5' high and 31' wide easel on National Highway 47 near Neyyattinkara, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Two years later, it was included in the Limca Book of Records.
In 2017, Parameswaran built "The Largest Devil's Knot (Edakoodam)", a type of Burr puzzle. This is the second successful attempt at setting this record. 'Edakoodam' is a word familiar to most Malayalis, meaning 'a puzzle which is difficult to solve'. However, not many people know of this curious toy which is somewhat similar to the Rubik's cube. Made up of six wooden blocks, the 'edakoodam', once dismantled, can be assembled to its original position only with proper mathematical skills.
In an arts contest organised by Tamil magazine "Ananda Vikatan", Parameswaran was first shortlisted within the top seventy-five artists and later chosen first among them by public vote. In 2010, he won the "Bikhuram National Award" for his painting of Mahatma Gandhi and the same year, for a painting of Fidel Castro, he won an online art contest organised by the ArtSlant International.
In 2015, his works were featured at Elegance Club, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and included a portrait of Adhiletchumy Natrajan, titled "Bliss". "Bliss" had previously been featured at the Vienna International Exhibition (2013). One of his paintings, called "Bhayanakam", was featured at Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai, and sold, which he donated to a relief fund for people affected by Cyclone Thane, which struck the Indian subcontinent in 2011.
Parameswaran has made portraits of Mother Teresa, Abdul Kalam, Richard Branson, and Najib Razak, among many others.
Exhibitions.
Parameswaran's paintings have been exhibited in multiple art exhibitions, including: