The ''Big Bull'' is a bronze sculpture of a charging bull designed by

Solapur Solapur () is a city located in the south-western region of the Indian state of Maharashtra, close to its border with Karnataka. Solapur is located on major highway, rail routes between Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad, with a branch line ...

-based sculptor Bhagwan Rampure and was originally located inside the premises of the

Bombay Stock Exchange BSE Limited, also known as the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), is an Indian stock exchange. It is located on Dalal Street in Mumbai. Established in 1875 by cotton merchant Premchand Roychand, a Jain businessman, it is the oldest stock exchange in ...

(BSE) on

Dalal Street Dalal Street ( hi, script=Latn, dalāl path, mr, script=Latn, dalāl gallī) in Financial District of Fort in Mumbai, is the address of the Bombay Stock Exchange and several financial institutions of the world. The term “Dalal Street” ha ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

, India. The sculpture was installed outside the building of Bombay Stock Exchange on 11 January 2008. The bull is inspired by

Arturo Di Modica Arturo Di Modica (January 26, 1941February 19, 2021) was an Italian-American sculptor, widely known for his ''Charging Bull'' sculpture that he left outside the New York Stock Exchange between pre-dawn police patrols on December 15, 1989. Engl ...

's ''

Charging Bull ''Charging Bull'', sometimes referred to as the ''Bull of Wall Street'' or the ''Bowling Green Bull'', is a bronze sculpture that stands on Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway just north of Bowling Green (New York City), Bowling Green in the Finan ...

'' sculpture that was installed on

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

outside the

New York Stock Exchange Building The New York Stock Exchange Building (also the NYSE Building), in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City, serves as the headquarters of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). It is composed of two connected structures occupying ...

in 1989. The ''Big Bull'' is tall, long and weighs . It was relocated to the

Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) is central business district under-construction in Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad in Gandhinagar district in Gujarat, India. It is India's first operational greenfield smart city and internationa ...

(GIFT City) near

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

in 2017.

Design

Rampure was approached by officials of the BSE in 2007 to design the sculpture. He was given photographs of the original sculpture in New York City and studied live bulls to understand their anatomy. A clay model was first designed for the BSE's approval following which the bronze version was made. It was made in four parts owing to its size and took Rampure three months to design and build. While he was allowed to make a few changes to the design, the original pose of the bull was retained owing to the animal's identity in stock markets as a symbol of money. The BSE later commissioned him to create a thousand miniature replicas made of fibre to be given as souvenirs to visiting foreign dignitaries.

Controversy

The sculpture came into news after the stock market crash of January 2008, when the

Sensex The BSE SENSEX (also known as the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index or simply SENSEX) is a Capitalization-weighted index, free-float market-weighted stock market index of 30 well-established and financially sound companies listed on the ...

lost 14% in two days and in a week, along its year-long descent from 20,000 to 8,000. The bull was subsequently considered as a ''panvati'' or bad omen. Several brokers demanded the removal of the sculpture during the crash, with an astrologer suggesting that it be re-installed at a more auspicious time. A group of 200 to 300 brokers protested outside the exchange for a day asking for it to be removed. In 2017, prior to its relocation to GIFT City, the BSE decided to allow visitors to photograph the bull. However, due to security issues, it was replaced by an acrylic replica on rollers outside the exchange. The

Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC; IAST: ), also known as the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), is the governing civic body of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra. It is India's richest municipal corporation. The BMC ...

(MCGM) objected to this, claiming that it was inconveniencing people on the road and asked for it to be removed.

References

{{reflist Cattle in art Fictional bulls 2008 sculptures Bronze sculptures in India 2008 establishments in Maharashtra Bombay Stock Exchange