Kodak moment: How two Hyderabadi 3D artists are popularizing city's flyovers, roads, buildings at global level

Hyderabad: For most of us, photography is clicking photos of a beautiful sunset, scenery, or people. But Laxman Pithani and Nikhil Chakravarthy from Hyderabad are crazy about new buildings, roads, highways, flyovers, and other infrastructure projects in the city.

"When you go on a newly laid highway, without many vehicles and hardly anybody to stop you or ask you anything, you enjoy a kind of absolute freedom. We both enjoy that," says Nikhil.

Laxman and Nikhil together run a Twitter and Youtube page 'Travel with Laxman' where they post videos and photos of the newly built or inaugurated flyovers, roads, and buildings. They have posted drone shots of the Uppal SkyWalk Project, the renovated Yadagirigutta temple, Gandipet park, the Biodiversity flyover, and much more.

Laxman (left) and Nikhil (right) at the recently inaugurated Shilpa layout flyover

Their recent work being the Shilpa layout flyover. When the city witnessed its first Formula E racing event, they were there to capture the track where the racing happened. On their Twitter page Travel with Laxman, they have around 2,806 followers and on their YouTube page, they have around 57,000 subscribers.

Shilpa layout flyover

It is not about the final product. But Laxman and Nikhil started following infrastructural projects in the city since its inception. "If there are any upcoming projects, we consult the concerned person and find out detailed information regarding the same. We shoot it from its beginning stage to end," says Laxman.

In this way, it helps the audience to be updated about the progress of these projects.

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When Laxman met Nikhil

Laxman is originally from Hyderabad but Nikhil is from Tenali in Andhra Pradesh. He moved to Hyderabad in 2002. Both of them met in 2007 in an animation institute `Arena; where they worked as faculty for 3D training. Here they taught the students how to use animation techniques in movies and character molding. Later, they moved on to teach interior design at the same institute. In 2015, they both moved to Custom Furnish, an interior designing specialist company, where they worked as 3D artists. In 2019, Nikhil left the company and Laxman continued for another one and a half years after which he resigned in 2021.

Durgam Cheruvu bridge

Since the time they met, they discovered their common liking for traveling. Their definition of traveling sounds very unique and interesting. "We both love traveling on unknown roads. I can drive straight for 10 hours continuously without thinking about the destination. On such trips, we used to discover new roads, flyovers, buildings, etc. which fascinated us a lot. Such trips, without any definite destination, with nobody to bother, gave us a different kind of freedom," explains Nikhil.

Till December 2021, Laxman and Nikhil were doing this as a part-time job. But in December 2021, they both resigned and started doing this full-time.

Their work is now being recognized by the Telangana government as well, seeking their help to get photos of some of the infra projects in the city.

Command and Control Centre, Banjara Hills

Development in Hyderabad

Both Laxman and Nikhil say the pace of development in Hyderabad has been very fast, compared to other cities. "I was born here, so I am very happy to see the city developing at this pace," says Laxman. To this Nikhil adds, "Every week, there is something or the other happening, so it is unable to catch up with this speed. For instance, the other day when the Shilpa layout flyover was inaugurated, the same day the Skyroot Aerospace's private rocket was launched from Sriharikota."

Bio diversity flyover

Besides updating the city residents about the development, 'Travel with Laxman' is now enabling many of the Hyderabadis living abroad to reclaim their lost connection with the city. "We have people calling from places like the USA and sharing with us their happiness of seeing their city develop," says Laxman.

Renovated Yadadrigutta temple

The duo is happy for being able to bridge this gap that the Hyderabadis living elsewhere face.