Telangana has been a pioneer in using temples to draw in tourists. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi, rechristened Bharat Rashtra Samithi, hired a movie set designer Anand Sai to work on one of its smaller spiritual centres.
It was a little cave temple of Narasimha Swamy, the fierce half lion avatar of Vishnu, who tears apart Hiranyakashyapu, atop the hillock in Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district. But after a six-year ₹1,200 crore makeover, it is a grand spectacle of gold and stone that can be seen from trains passing along the Secunderabad-Delhi route. According to temple officials, the number of devotees has surged from 5,000 before 2016 to 25,000 on regular days and above 50,000 on festive occasions and holidays ever since the rebuilt temple was inaugurated in March 2022.
