With The Positive Collective, The Better India’s COVID-19 coverage is available to regional language publications for free. Write to editorial@thebetterindia.com for more details.

If you are a resident of Mumbai and a Bollywood fan, then Bandra might be one of your favourite go-to spots in the city.

Apart from housing the Khan trio – Shah Rukh, Amir and Salman Khan and multiple people from the film fraternity – Bandra is also known for its stunning murals of Bollywood actors.

From the 230-foot mural of Amitabh Bachchan’s iconic look from Deewar near Mount Mary, Dadasaheb Phalke’s mural on the MTNL building that can be spotted from Bandra-Worli Sea Link to the latest one of late actor Irrfan Khan in the bylanes of Waroda Road, fans are often spotted taking selfies with eye-catching murals.

Ranjit Dahiya, from Sonipat, Haryana, is the artist behind Bollywood murals. Bringing alive movie stills or pictures of actors, he attempts to deepen Mumbai’s association with Bollywood.

“In 2009, when I moved to Mumbai I was disappointed with the ‘filmy’ city. I had imagined visible differences between Mumbai and other cities of India. Instead of posters of celebrities, all I could see was pollution and cramped buildings. That was my triggering point. Through street art, I decided to bring the celluloid world closer to commoners like me,” Ranjit tells The Better India.

Ranjit started his painting career as a whitewasher at the age of 16; did his Masters in Graphic Design from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. He worked at a couple of companies as a graphic and interface designer before committing to street art in 2012.

Love for Street Art & Bollywood

Alongside a 9-5 job, Ranjit would often go around with his other artists in Bandra to practice street art.

This is how he landed his first stint to recreate a film poster for a film festival in Paris. He made a huge wall painting for the film Sarkar Raj in 2010. This was Ranjit’s breakthrough in street art.

Two years later, he started his venture Bollywood Art Project (BAP) to transform the city into a Bollywood memorial. He also took up freelancing projects for additional income.

Being a huge fan of Bollywood movies, it was difficult for Ranjit to choose his first-ever mural, “From Sridevi, Smita Patil, to Rishi Kapoor, I wanted to draw all of them at once. But then, finally, I chose Anarkali from Mughal-e-Azam. When I saw the movie in colour, I couldn’t take my eyes off the gorgeous Madhubala. I took permission from a 2-storey building on Chappel road and there was my first mural,” he shares.

Since then, Ranjit has made close to 50 murals across multiple cities including Delhi and Chennai and even in the United States, in South Carolina. His list boasts of actors like Nadira, Sridevi, Rajesh Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Saira Banu, Amrish Puri, Guru Dutt, Waheeda Rehman, Smita Patil and so on. One of his favourite paintings is a still from Pyaasa of Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rehman.

Ranjit spends anything between Rs 40,000 to 20 lakh on the paints, labour, food etc per painting.

Though there are no monetary returns, what keeps him going?

“My love for cinema,” he quips. “I save every penny I can and sometimes when I am lucky, I get sponsorships. More than money, it is the love and appreciation for my art that excites me to paint a mural. As a whitewasher, I had never imagined that I would meet Nawazuddin Siddiqui one day.”

Ranjit has over a hundred names in his list of actors and movie stills that he wishes to paint, including his favourite actors, Raj Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan, “I hope to meet Shah Rukh one day, not as a fan, but as an accomplished artist. That would be a proud moment for me.”

Check out Ranjit’s impressive artworks:

Images courtesy: Ranjit Dahiya

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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With The Positive Collective, The Better India’s COVID-19 coverage is available to regional language publications for free. Write to editorial@thebetterindia.com for more details.

It is around 7.30 am, and Somashekhar Gudipalli from Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur is all set to seize the day.

Armed with a mask, paintbrushes, and paint, the 25-year-old leaves for a 90-km journey to Kadiri village. His mother makes sure he carries a lunch box as it’s going to be a long day for the final year student of Fine Arts at the Yogi Vemana University.

Since Somashekar has already taken permission from the police and local panchayat, no one stops him from entering the village despite a strict lockdown.

Over the next few hours, Somashekar paints a gorgeous picture of an old lady sporting a mask on the wall of a house.

He comes home by evening and begins prepping for another piece of street art in another village.

This has been Somashekar’s schedule ever since the nationwide lockdown was imposed to control the spread of COVID-19.

As his college is shut, for the time being, Somashekar has turned towards spreading awareness about coronavirus in his district through his artworks. He has made around 90 COVID-19-related paintings across 50 villages so far.

“Everyone in the village may not have access to a television, newspaper or internet to receive information about the ongoing pandemic. However, street painting can be seen by everyone and also works as a reminder. I aim to spread awareness about social distancing and other preventive measures among as many villagers as possible,” Somashekar tells The Better India.

Along with some of his paintings, Somashekar also writes informative messages in his regional language.

“Tummina daggina cheti rumalu vada di (Use handkerchief while coughing and sneezing). Corona mahamari ni nirmoolinchandi (Eradicate coronavirus pandemic),” reads one of his wall paintings.

Somashekar’s art pieces have got a positive response from people, “People often come up to me to inquire about the paintings while I am in the process. This way, I try to initiate a conversation around safety protocols they should follow.”

Meanwhile, his parents, who are farm labourers, have also been supporting him in purchasing paints and meeting travel expenses.

Somashekar’s talent was identified by his teachers when he was in the second grade. On their encouragement, he would participate in annual art festivals organised by the Rural Development Trust (RDT).

His artwork on violence against women gained immense recognition and even a prize at the RDT festival. Since then, his work mostly revolves around contemporary societal issues, the latest one being COVID-19.

“Painting is an expression of my thoughts and ideas. It transcends through all cultural, and social barriers, and everyone can relate to it,” he concludes.

Check out Somashekar’s simple, innovative, and informative artworks:

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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For Betsy Jenifer hailing from Vellore, Tamil Nadu, communicating and socialising with others had always been a struggle. Up until five years ago, the 20-year-old did not know that she had Asperger’s Syndrome. Struggling to communicate her feelings, a five-year-old Betsy had turned to art as a form of escape.

“When I couldn’t convey an idea properly through verbal communication, I would turn to my paintbrushes,” she tells The Better India (TBI).

Once Betsy came to know about her condition at the age of fifteen, she decided to continue her schooling at home. Life slowed down. And it took years for the teenager to realise that she could not let the syndrome bind her to one place.

Betsy decided to take back the reins of her life.

Today, Betsy is a final year literature student at Women’s Christian College, Chennai (WCC) and an artist whose paintings have found their way to publications like The New York Times, Elan Literary Magazine, Alexandria Quarterly and After The Pause.

It’s not every day that you come across an inspiring story from your own alma mater. So it was also a truly heartwarming moment for me to know that WCC had given a platform to Betsy to bring out her full potential, just as it had done for me.

Talking to her was like a walk down the memory lane and during our conversation, I found out that for Betsy art was life. Throughout her life art has always been a companion that has given her the freedom to express herself in ways that the society wouldn’t.

This article speaks of a determined young woman who proves to us that art can be the perfect way to effectively socialise and communicate with society.

“In My Head”

“I have vivid dreams every day and images and patterns cross my mind often. In ‘In my Head’, the picture of a boy whose skull is cut open and a ghost wafting out of his brain was something I saw first thing when I woke up one morning,” Betsy tells me.

It seems the young painter faced many such persistent ghosts throughout her childhood. Her inability to communicate clearly with children of her age may have exposed her to ridicule very early in life. Also, our society is not known to take kindly to any condition which sets apart a person from others.

Betsy learnt young to ignore and move on. She takes strength from her roots, traditions and her creative expression.

Embracing “Traditions”

“The portrait that seems to be of an African tribal person, now tells me to embrace my grassroots and to hold on to my native culture no matter how far I may stray away from it,” she says. Betsy believes that because of her Asperger’s she has an ability to think and imagine scenarios in a way that ordinary people can’t.

She especially loves drawing cityscapes with colourfully diverse buildings. “I have particularly loved cartoons like “Chowder” and “Foster’s home for imaginary friends” due to their imaginative illustrations of buildings. This definitely kindled my imagination, toward detailed and meticulous drawing,” shares the artist who still has a lot to tell the world through her art.

The versatile young woman is not only an artist but also a writer. She wrote a novel and has entered it on NaNoWriMo, an online creative writing platform.

Throughout her childhood, Betsy was convinced that she was not talented or good enough for the world, but her determination and her passion for art has given way to many beautiful paintings proving that being “different” from others is just a matter of perception.

Below we have some of Betsy’s artwork for you to enjoy.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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Vikramaditya Motwane’s stunning directorial debut, Udaan (2010) played a significant role in rejuvenating the spirit of realism of Hindi cinema.

Produced by Anurag Kashyap, this landmark coming-of-age film set in the steel city of Jamshedpur, chronicles the life of Rohan Singh, a teenager with a talent for poetry, who successfully rebels against his dictatorial and often ruthless father.

It’s a film about love, loss, aspiration, friendship, brotherhood, rebellion, and more importantly, the spirit of freedom.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of a film which captured the imagination of millions. Speaking to The Better India, Rajat Barmecha (31), who played the role of Rohan (it was his debut film) looks back at the journey towards the role of a lifetime, and after.

Getting the part

Born on 24 April 1989 in Ladnun, a village in Rajasthan, Rajat grew up and went to school in the national capital, where his father ran a business.

“Bollywood ruled the Barmecha household, and my father is responsible for my inclination towards acting and cinema. When my brother, sister, and I were little, he took us to watch films in the cinema hall every weekend. He has continued the practice till this day, and watches practically every new release,” recalls Rajat.

Rajat was barely 18 when he arrived in Mumbai to fulfill his life-long dream of becoming a Bollywood star. For around a year and a half, he found work appearing in a series of TV commercials before hearing about auditions for an Anurag Kashyap film from his elder brother Vicky, and a friend.

Looking for someone to play a high school boy, the casting team had initially chosen not to even take Rajat’s audition since his ‘look’ at the time didn’t suit the role. A fortnight later, however, he received a call back from the casting team, who told him that Vikramaditya Motwane, the film’s director, wanted him to give a screen test.

“The first screen test I gave for Udaan, in 2009, was awful. But there was something Vikram liked about me and asked to meet me in person. At the time, Vikram used to work out of filmmaker Nikhil Advani’s office. I met him there, had a small chat, and we really got along. After that, he asked me to give a few more screen tests. One day, we worked on some scenes for four-five hours. Finally, I did two scenes that Vikram really liked. After performing these two scenes, I was regularly called to Anurag’s office,” recalls Rajat.

There, Rajat would spend quality time with Anurag, Vikram, his wife Ishika, and the rest of the film’s cast and crew. They would ask him to read poems, listen to music, but he still didn’t know whether he got the part. One fine day, Vikram called him for a walk in and around the Aram Nagar area. There, he confirmed his part in the film.

While Rajat’s desire to become an actor was driven initially by a fascination with the Hindi film industry and the name, fame and money associated with being a big star, working with Vikram and Anurag had a massive influence on changing the way he approached cinema.

“For a newcomer in the film industry without any personal connections, all you know about cinema is what you see on screen, but you know nothing about the technicalities or the craft. Vikram changed all that for me. He is my acting and filmmaking school—in fact, my entire foundation as an actor rests on what I learnt from him. When we were shooting Udaan, if I had any doubts about the process, Vikram would patiently answer them after work was over for the day. I haven’t attended a single acting workshop, or received any formal training of any sort, and when people praise me for being a natural performer on screen, I give all the credit to him because he taught me how to do that. Today, whenever I meet any other director, I always compare that person to him,” he says.

Shooting for Udaan

Besides working with such a stellar filmmaker, Rajat also shared the screen with two legends of Indian television in Ronit Roy, who plays his abrasive father, and Ram Kapoor, the benevolent uncle. It was an experience he cherishes till this day.

‘I loved working with both of them and they were extremely kind to me. It was my first film and those two were legends in Indian television. But they never made me feel as if I was a young guy just starting out. The entire cast and crew of Udaan felt like a family. There was no hierarchy. I remember there was only one Cafe Coffee Day in Jamshedpur at the time, which was right under the hotel where we were staying. Whenever a break day came, we would all chill together at CCD or at the hotel. It was like a family getting together every day,” he says.

As actors, Rajat feels that Ram and Ronit are very different.

“Ram is someone who knows his lines so well and in detail that he would not even miss a word. On the other hand, although Ronit knows his lines, he improvises on screen. He is very spontaneous. I have ended up becoming more like Ronit because I don’t remember my lines too well, but improvise and understand the feel that is required to emote them. Vikram was never crazy about us actors sticking to our lines. For him, it was about getting the emotion and feel right,” recalls Rajat.

Made with a budget of Rs 3 crore, Udaan released on 16 July 2010, to rave reviews, capturing the imagination of everyone in the film industry and the entertainment media. Whoever he met during parties and award functions, including the likes of Amitabh Bachhan and Karan Johar, heaped praise on his performance.

After an impressive debut, however, Rajat completely went under the radar. Apart from a cameo in Bejoy Nambiar’s Shaitan (2011) and a series of short films, including the National Film Award-winning The Finish Line (2011) directed by Akshay Roy of Meri Pyaari Bindu (2017) fame, we didn’t see much of him.

When asked this question, he talks about the paucity of quality scripts and roles that came before him.

“The offers I got post Udaan were similar to the film, and the scripts weren’t interesting enough. Also, I didn’t get that many offers from big directors as well because I was much younger at the time and wasn’t a star in the conventional sense. Whatever the script, all producers needed was a star. That dynamic still exists, but it’s much better today. Today you have Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who can play the lead actor. Back then, it wasn’t possible,” he says.

Was it just a question of bad timing that he didn’t get the sort of roles he was looking for since Hindi cinema at the time was primarily driven by star power and big budgets?

Today, actors like Ayushmann Khurrana, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajkummar Rao, Bhumi Pednekar and Kangana Ranaut are telling stories with tighter scripts and great attention to characterisation that are steeped in realism. Their films are telling stories from beyond the metropolises, of a small-town and rural India, and they are doing well commercially.

If Udaan had released in say 2015 or 2020, one can make the argument that it could have been a bigger hit, and thus opened more doors for actors like Rajat.

But it’s an argument he rejects straightaway, and approaches this question very differently.

“Yes, it’s a much better time for smaller films today. If Udaan had been released in 2005, it would have been a disaster. No one would have seen it. However, had it been released in 2015, I would not have been able to play that role because of my age. So, I believe that 2010 was the perfect year for the film to release. Hindi cinema was changing and Udaan was one of the films that catapulted that change. It was a Rs 3 crore film that went to the Cannes film festival and received such widespread love and acclaim. I was also at the right age when I played that character. Maybe in 2015, it would have been a bigger hit, but I wouldn’t have been the person to play that role. Everything happens for a reason and the timing for Udaan was perfect. I have no complaints there,” he argues.

However, he also notes that It depends on how you are launched as an actor. Getting launched by big banner production houses, he admits, helps land more roles. Having said that, Rajat is adamant that he wouldn’t change a thing. If he had to do it all over again, he would still choose to do Udaan as his debut film.

Life changing moment

Five years ago, Rajat’s life changed completely because of two reasons. The first was watching the 2007 film ‘Into The Wild,’ which is based on a book of the same name by Jon Krakauer, and narrates the story of a young graduate, who decides to renounce all his possessions and hitchhike across America.

The second was the emergence of the web series format and OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar and Viu.

“Sometime in 2015-16, my entire perspective towards life changed. Before, I was heavily caught up in work and materialistic things. But that changed when I watched ‘Into The Wild’. It inspired me deeply, and got me into travelling and backpacking. At the same time, the web series scene in India started to pick up. In 2016, I starred in a Hindi web series called ‘Girl in The City’ followed by a few more projects. It was a good space for an actor like me. Those who were making films were the same people who were making web series. The quality was more or less the same, but it was just on a different medium,” he says.

Last year, he acted in a show called ‘Hey Prabhu’ directed by Shashank Ghosh, who had previously made ‘Veere Di Wedding’. In the show, he plays a social media star with a massive fan following online, who one day discovers that he has erectile dysfunction.

“With the advent of streaming and OTT platforms, I am definitely getting better projects. Besides, during the lockdown I wrote my first feature film script. I want this to be a Netflix original. Before I pitch the script, however, I will be sending it to Vikram for feedback, and we’ll see how that goes. Nonetheless, films are my first love, but I don’t want to compromise on the kind of work I do,” he says.

Working on these web series has allowed Rajat to live comfortably in Mumbai, while also allowing him to pursue his other passion, which is travelling. In the past five years alone, he has done over 50 solo trips all over India and Europe. In fact, if you visit his social media accounts, here’s what his bio states: “What do you do for a living? I Travel! So how do you make money? Aah…For that I Act.”

“Acting and solo travelling are two passions I can never let go of. These are the two things in this world that can make a night owl like me wake up at 6 AM and get excited. I try to maintain a balance between the two, but I sometimes end up doing more travelling. Acting is not merely a profession for me, but something that genuinely makes me happy. It’s more than a source of income. I wouldn’t give up either travelling or acting to do the other. Whenever I am not working or busy shooting for something, I am travelling,” he says.

Every trip, according to him, is more about the people you meet and the experiences you have rather than the country or the place. “These experiences teach you so much as an actor and a human being. As a person you grow when you travel. Once this lockdown gets over, I just want to pack up my bags and travel once again,” he admits.

I suppose it’s impossible to keep a free bird caged forever. The same spirit of freedom that drove his character in Udaan is what guides his life today.

And honestly, there is no better way to live it.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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From the days of silent, black-and-white films, there has been tremendous progress in every aspect of filmmaking. Even the numbers have grown exponentially. Tens of thousands of feature films, documentaries, TV serials, and commercials are made every year, making it an industry worth billions of dollars.

But the one thing that hasn’t changed is the waste generation and the silent damage to the environment! It is in the use of plastics on props and sets, and smoke from action-packed scenes, increasing carbon footprints by the globetrotting crew.

Sadly, including the viewer, no one notices or talks about this.

“Cinema can fill in the empty spaces of your life,” said Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, known for films like Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, High heels etc.

He aptly described the role of cinema in our lives. Producers of this profit-making industry will go to any length to ensure that the celluloid world transports us into a Utopia.

For any historical film, huge sets are maintained in a pristine condition until the shoot is complete. Artificial and aesthetic weapons are made. It is reported that for the epic fight scenes in the film Baahubali, nearly 10,000 weapons consisting of swords, helmets, and armour, were created. To make them lightweight, production designer Sabu Cyril got them made in carbon fibre instead of steel, which is recyclable, whereas carbon fibre isn’t.

What happens to the temporary sets or other paraphernalia once the shooting is complete?

“With minute detail, we had constructed the replica of a Boeing 747 plane which was hijacked in 1986, for the film Neerja,” says Aparna Sud, the production designer. Since the film was released in 2016, the ‘aeroplane’ has been lying in a heap in Nitin Desai’s famous ND film studio near Mumbai.

Sud has won several awards, including the Filmfare, Zee Cine Award, and an International Indian Film Academy Award for this film’s production design. Although she loves her job, she regrets the waste generated by her work.

“At the end of the shoot, we just pay Rs 3,500 per truck of waste, and our responsibility ends! Some items like iron and wood may be retrieved by the kabadiwalas, but the rest of that waste goes to landfills,” accepts the set designer.

Like other production designers, she too retrieves many items from her sets and stores them to be used in other shoots later.

Another award-winning production designer, Sukant Panigrahy, says, “Many times, I tried to initiate a dialogue with the officers at the Film City (Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari) in Mumbai about starting a waste management centre on the premises. But the talks never concluded. Even when I was working with Yash Raj Films, I tried; the problem was accepted, but it was never given serious thought.”

Art director and designer of films like Chak De! India, Dev D, Tashan, Ek Tha Tiger, Panigrahy has started waste recycling in his capacity. More than a design director, he wishes to be known as an installation artist and collects reusable items like pipes, nuts, bolts, and flex sheets from his film sets. Some of these were displayed at the 2013 Kala Ghoda Art Festival in Mumbai.

Set materials like Flex sheets aren’t recyclable and damage the environment extensively. They are painted, used as backdrops on film sets and name boards for shops or advertising hoardings. They are made of PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) and don’t decompose.

Other items used in large quantities are plastic cups, plates, small mineral water bottles, hand tissues used in makeup and supari packet wrappers.

Besides these materials, carbon footprints are added when the crew goes on location hunting or visit the location to shoot. Large generators are used, and the damage is greater in an action film due to the use of smoke, which harms the air quality.

“We have to accept that some kind of waste will be generated on the film sets, with damage to the environment, but the new trend is to minimise the damage as much as possible. A lot of things depend on the story; for example, if the story is based abroad, then one has to fly. But that part is minimised if it is based in India,” explains Ravi Popat. He’s the award-winning art director of the Gujarati film, Hellaro.

Luckily for Popat, Hellaro’s story was Kutch-based. So, he used local material to build 15 Bhungas (traditional houses of Kutch, Gujarat) and labourers, with minimal waste.

Another new trend is to rent equipment from local outlets even when shooting abroad, except cameras. Even the support crew and actors are hired locally. This not only cuts costs but also reduces travel miles. The crew, including directors and actors, have also started replacing plastic water bottles with flasks which are refilled from common storage units.

To reduce travel miles and damage to the environment, big guns in the industry with no financial restraints, use VFX (visual effects) and CGI (computer-generated imagery) to get the required effect. For example, 90 per cent of the action and scenic beauty of Baahubali was created on VFX.

“There is increasing use of this technique. And if done well, only experts can identify that it is not a real location. We have expertise but fall short on finances. Hollywood films have immense budgets which help their films look better with these new techniques,” says Ramesh Meer, the chief creative director and CEO of the FX Factory.

In nearly five decades, he has made hundreds of films, including Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Pardes, Don and television serials and commercials.

Meer agrees that the increasing use of VFX and CGI will reduce the damage to our environment. In fact, in the latest film, War, a majority of the chase scenes between Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff in the Arctic Circle were done on VFX and CGI.

Although many in India are using this technique, others are strapped for finances and depend on real location shooting. And they are the ones who need to be careful.

Meer says that VFX and CGI will be preferred if budgets are increased, which will help decrease the waste and carbon footprints.

Also Read: Here’s Why These Mumbai Scriptwriters & Engineers Become Idol-Makers Once a Year!

In Hollywood, special NGOs like the Ecoset and Earth Angles are hired by filmmakers to manage their waste. The Indian film industry needs to wake up. People like Sud, Panigrahy, Popat are willing to work, and all they need is a little help from the film fraternity.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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‘Black Lives Matter’ protests broke out across the USA last week after a Caucasian police officer’s action resulted in the death of a black man, George Floyd. Floyd’s death is widely-attributed to racism in America, which has seen hundreds of such cases over the decades.

These protests slowly spread to other countries like the UK and Australia.

Meanwhile, in India, after many celebrities tweeted their support for ‘Black Lives Matter’, the widespread colour discrimination that exists in India took centre stage.

However, the condemns and appeals backfired, especially in cases of those who had endorsed fairness creams in the past. Many pointed out how celebrities with a huge fan base were setting wrong examples by promoting a change in skin-tone if you are dark.

Actor Abhay Deol too called out actors for their ‘wokeness’ in a series of Facebook posts highlighting the taglines of beauty products which include ‘white glow’, ‘fine fairness’, and so on. 

“Fairness creams in India have evolved over the years, from being fairness creams to now using euphemisms like “skin brightening/ whitening”, or “lightening creams”. Most brands no longer want to be associated directly with being termed as ‘fairness creams’. So now we have brands selling “HD glow”, “White beauty”, “white glow”, “fine fairness”, and so on,” he wrote. 

India’s obsession with fair skin has prevailed for a long time (some even call it a colonial hangover). The widely held belief that beauty is directly proportional to how fair you are is reiterated through customs, matrimonial ads, beauty product ads, and films.

In fact, one of my colleagues at The Better India narrated how she was asked to stand in the last line of her school choir when she was barely ten because of her skin colour. 

So, how does one get rid of the deep-rooted mindset without witnessing a brutal attack like the one in Minneapolis? Does India too need its own ‘Black Lives Matter’ to awaken the masses?

Probably one way to start is by standing up against skin-toning endorsements considering India’s fandom with celebrities. Something as simple as refusing a fairness product ad will send out a strong message to millions of Indians who look up to celebs.

And this isn’t to imply that no actor has spoken against the blatant privilege of fairness. 

Here are ten Indian actors who stood their ground and refused to propagate that having a fair skin is a gateway to success and emphasised that all colours are equal. 

1) Ranbir Kapoor

Indicating that actions speak louder than words, one of the reigning superstars of our country, Ranbir Kapoor, reportedly refused to collaborate with a fairness cream company. Though he did not openly make any statement against fairness brands, he let his action do the work. 

He turned down an offer of whopping Rs 9 crore for a day’s shoot as per the report.

This was at a time when the actor had already established his position in the film industry. He could have taken the offer but he stood for what he believed. 

2) Taapsee Pannu

She is one of the rare actors who does not mince her words and stands for what is right. Among all her fearless opinions, an event in 2017 won many hearts. The actor pulled out of an event as soon as she realised that it was being sponsored by a fairness brand.

“I agree it was a last-minute call, but when I found out that I would have to pose at the event with fairness brand in the background, I decided to take my name off the event. I have actually lost quite a few films because of being fair, so I will not propagate fairness in any way,” she told Hindustan Times.  

Ironically, the event in Jaipur was about propagating women’s rights! 

3) Kubbra Sait

When successful actors think twice about their brand image or rubbing big companies on the wrong side, Kubbra Sait does not shy away from being vocal.

Known for her role in Sacred Games, this fairly new actor, not only openly refused to associate with a product but also used her position to bring about a change. She refused to retouch her skin while shooting for an ad. 

Reacting to Abhay Deol’s post, she commented, “I can speak for me. when the brand … approached me to be a part of their campaign, I was excited. When I saw the list of products, we spoke amongst ourselves. Masaba (Gupta), Kusha Kapila and I. We spoke to the brand as one team and refused to be tagged with the products that had anything related to brightening/lightening of the skin. Even the digital cover we did was not a retouched photograph.”

4) Nandita Das 

Actor-director Nandita Das has been known for criticising Indian’s obsession with fairness. Time and again, she has called out the film industry’s pre-conceived notions about having a fair person in the lead role.

“When there is a role of a rural woman, or a Dalit woman, or the role of a slum-dweller, then my skin colour is fine. But the minute I have to play an educated, upper-middle-class character, invariably someone comes up to me and says ‘I know you don’t like to lighten your skin, but you know this role is of an upper-middle-class educated person’,” she says.

Several years ago, Nandita Das launched a campaign called ‘Dark Is Beautiful’ to end prejudices against dark skin colour. She even came out with a 2.5-minute powerful video titled India’s Got Colour. 

5) Kalki Koechlin

Kalki Koechlin is another actor known for her unconventional roles and outspoken public presence.

When a fairness brand approached Kalki, she turned them down as she believes that beauty is not to be associated with skin colour.

“I don’t think there is anything wrong with being fair, but it has become such an obsession in our country that it is all we look for in beauty. There are so many stunning people who are dark-skinned and it should be celebrated. I would love to have a product that makes me darker,” she told Hindustan Times. 

6) Tannishtha Chatterjee

Making jokes or passing casual remarks about issues that affect our society is not okay. It is important to understand that one cannot get away with racist comments in the name of humour. It is important to point it out and the ensure is not repeated and that’s exactly what actor Tannishtha Chatterjee did in 2016. 

She lashed out against a comedy show called Comedy Nights Bachao, which airs on Colors TV, after being at the receiving end of racist jokes about her skin colour.

“I was actually looking forward to be roasted… the only thing they could roast about a dark-skinned actress was of course her dark skin. They could identify me only with that. I could not believe I was sitting in a nationally televised comedy show in 2016 in Mumbai amid such regressive (I can’t call it humour), and blatantly racist content,” she wrote.

“Even considering that dark skin is a joke comes from that very deep prejudice. And I tried to explain why this is not personal and it is a larger issue about what our mindset is. And why cracking jokes about deep biases in our society is irresponsible. And that it is not a question about apologizing to me, but propagating this idea and continuing with this mindset in the name of comedy is what is hugely problematic, specially because it is a popular show on a nationalized Chanel,” she added. 

7) Sai Pallavi

“This is Indian colour. We can’t go to foreigners and ask them why they’re white, and if they know that they will get cancer because of it. We can’t look at them and think we want that. That’s their skin colour and this is ours. Africans have their own colour too and they are beautiful,” said South Indian actress Sai Pallavi on rejecting an ad to promote a fairness cream. 

Pallavi, who subjected her sister to eating certain fruits and veggies to get a ‘fair complexion’ in her childhood, rejected a Rs 2-crore advertisement, thus putting a strong message in south India’s film fraternity, where white skin is an obsession. 

“I’ve tricked Pooja (her sister) several times. She liked cheeseburgers and had a complex that she wasn’t as fair as I am. When we stood in front of a mirror, she would look at my face and then at hers. I noticed this several times. So I told her that if she wanted to become fair, she should eat fruits and vegetables. And she did. She doesn’t like fruits and vegetables at all but she still ate them because she wanted to be fair. I felt very bad about that, the impact it had on a girl five years younger than me,” the actor said. 

8) Sona Mohapatra

Calling out fairness cream brands for their regressive and deeply disturbing nature, Singer Sona Mohapatra recently hailed the government’s decision to propose a bill banning racist ads.

The singer shared how she had stood her ground against launching a baby care product around fair babies when she was working as a brand manager for a leading FMCG firm.

“Many years ago when I was a brand manager for a leading FMCG firm that was on the verge of launching a new baby care range, once again the positioning idea for the brand’s campaign that was being presented most strongly by the consumer research teams was around ‘fair babies’. I remember putting my foot down and refusing to sanction that campaign despite a lot of people in the team trying to convince me about how we need to give the consumer what they want and that it was my job to be most concerned about the best business and most money that the company could make. Truth is there is something called corporate responsibility and even individual conscience and consumerism cannot fuel all our decisions,” she said. 

9) Anushka Sharma 

It is not easy to sail against the tide in our film industry but Anushka Sharma has always taken the unconventional route. When it came to the topic of fairness cream, she did not back step. Instead, she admitted that she would never promote such products. 

“I would not endorse products that propagate racist and sexiest (beliefs)….and propagate social taboo. I don’t want to endorse products that propagate fair skin and all. I will not propagate anything that says this is right or wrong,” Anushka Sharma said at an event of a leading shampoo brand.

10) Sonal Sehgal

When actor Sonal Sehgal shifted to Mumbai to act in the glamour industry, she was a part of an ad for a fairness cream. She took up the ad that paid her house rent. However, soon she realised her problematic decision after her domestic help asked her which cream would make her look fairer. 

“I suddenly understood that I had failed Gangu (domestic help) and millions of gorgeous, dusky women across the country, including my own sister, by becoming a part of the mafia that undermines their self-esteem,” she told The Logical Indian. 

After working in a few films, she went to New York and studied filmmaking, but the domestic help’s question never left her and on her return, she made a short film, ‘Dancing In The Dark’. The film exposes the fairness cream market and its prejudices against dark-skinned people.

With these Indian actors publicly questioning the implications of unhealthy colour obsession and skewed notions of beauty, there is a way to educate people and bring about a change.

It is high time we cut out the racism that all of us are a part of.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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Why do we click pictures? 

To capture a memory? To tell a story? To show something in a different light? To enjoy the aesthetics of a moment?  The reasons are clearly multifold.

Pictures are also a medium of remembrance—they help us recall our loved ones, those who made a mark, or simply, capture for posterity, a spark of our essence. 

We all have albums that are keepsakes and treasures of moments long gone by. Snapshots that were taken through eyes that have lived the history of our country. We keep them locked away in cupboards, cabinets, and suitcases, bring them out in moments of nostalgia and then put them back again, fearing rain, insects, mould, and the ravages of time.

Now, thanks to technology, a few crowdsourced online platforms are doing the job of keeping these precious memories safe.

The Citizens Archive of India, Past Perfect Heritage Management, and 1947 Partition Archives, among others, are digital repositories of old photographs. 

Connecting with people of the subcontinent via their social media handles, these libraries are preserving the pictures and stories of the common person in various mediums. 

Documenting Personal Stories From a Bygone Era

Started by Sanghamitra Chatterjee and Deepti Anand in April 2016, Past Perfect takes the art of archiving to a larger audience. 

With the intention of making history more appetising and palatable by using various ways of communication and dissemination, PastPerfect dabbles in multiple histories which helps us understand the value of micro-stories amidst larger contexts. 

Talking to The Better India (TBI) about the need to archive people’s stories which can help us dive deeper into our history, Deepti Anand, co-founder, Past Perfect Heritage Management says, “We strongly believe that written records are not the only form of documentation and oral traditions and memory play a huge role in articulating experiential history. We think it’s very important to remember that history was never only about an event, but also about the experiences set around that event and stories of individuals who lived through and witnessed such events.” 

Take this picture for instance. 

It is a telegram detailing the evacuation of refugees to the port of Bombay on the Versova Steamer in 1947.

Many families left behind their homes, belongings, and property, gathering up what was most precious and leaving everything else for their “new” nation. It took almost three days for the ships to reach Indian shores and we can imagine the trepidation, fear, anxiety, and hope in the hearts of these 99 railway personnel travelling with their families.

When we look at a picture, it almost always evokes a response. A smile, a frown, horror, a wry twist to the lips, nonchalance, and sometimes even awe. 

Like this one:

Lounging regally in a chair, resplendent in her traditional fineries is this Marwari bairi. Ghagra-choli, a pallu wrapped around her head, her forehead adorned in a grand borla and maathaapatti, a neckpiece embedded with precious stones. Her ghagra (skirt) is heavy with intricate Aari Tari work with golden wire. What stood out for me was her serene countenance and evocative eyes. 

Preserving such treasures is important but it must be a time-consuming process, right? 

“Absolutely,” says Malvika, Archive Director at The Citizens’ Archive of India, an oral history archive that interviews people and collects their photographs. 

“The archival process is a long one. First, we identify interviewees and interview them, usually over multiple sessions. These interviews, taken in audio and video formats are edited and transcribed. Keywords and theme indices are created from the transcripts, and this is all put into a detailed catalogue so individual stories can be easily retrieved.” 

The team then returns to the homes of the interviewees to go through their old photographs and documents with them. The time, date, and places where the pictures were taken and the story of what is happening in the photograph goes into the material collection catalogue. 

“So as you see, the really fun part, which is collecting the interviews and photographs, is only about 30 per cent of the whole job. Archiving the interviews is a time-consuming process, but it is very important so that the interviews can be of use to people. However, it is very satisfying to take the time to do it correctly,” she adds.

Archives: A Powerful Tool to Understand Our Past 

The ancients carved in stone, the medievals sat for painting sessions, and then came the camera studios churning out albums upon albums full of snapshots. 

But in present times, the tips of our fingers do the job of capturing a moment. A click, upload to the cloud storage, and we have our memories preserved forever. 

But what of those moments that speak so eloquently through thick black and white paper. The sepia-tinted stories that bear witness to the ages, curling in at the edges, cracks appearing on their surface. 

By methodically amassing and archiving pieces of pictorial and material history, such online initiatives are allowing our past to finally speak through the tongues of the masses, and eyes who have seen the ebb and flow of time. They can sculpt the historical discourse and help us evaluate the society we live in, its evolution and perhaps, give context to the decision-making process.

Here is a collection of some interesting pictures sourced from The Citizens’ Archive of India.

Dr Rajendra Prasad’s carriage on the First Republic Day

Resume from 1939

Breaking the Glass Ceiling

A ‘Rani’ In Azad Hind Fauj

A Proud Sister Kissing Her Brother’s Maha Vir Chakra

100-year-old Cash Register

The RIN in a Saree

Have a memory to share? Visit Past Perfect Heritage Management and Citizens’ Archive of India.

Feature Image Courtesy: Past Perfect Heritage Management 

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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When I called comedian, actor and former radio jockey Danish Sait earlier this week, what I expected was a conversation primarily about humour and his one-minute viral clips that have kept his fans in good humour through this difficult lockdown period.

Instead, we began on a rather sombre note about the tragic suicide of film star Sushant Singh Rajput.

“Sushant’s demise has really shaken me up. I have been battling depression myself for three years now. I have been on antidepressants and since the start of this lockdown I have done six sessions of therapy. Depression doesn’t have a face. It’s a feeling so deep inside that you don’t know what’s going on. Getting professional help is the only way forward,” says Danish.

The 32-year-old goes on to recall a moment three years ago, when he stood at the 10th floor home of his sister, Kubbra Sait, wanting to jump because of all the pain in his body and mind. His anxiety levels were so high that he couldn’t articulate to his sister what was going on.

“My body would pain 24/7, and I was on continuous painkillers. It was only when I saw a doctor that I realised that all of it was a result of deep anxiety. You’re just one moment away from doing either something drastic or making a phone call to somebody to be there. It’s not easy to take someone’s life let alone your own. You never run across the highway straight. You always look left and right before crossing the road because you care about yourself,” he mentions.

But amidst all the shock and chaos, there is a clarity of mind in how to personally deal with low moments and loneliness.

“I am grateful for my family and friends who let me breathe, help me identify my troubles and overcome them. However, I must also mention that taking my antidepressants regularly and therapy sessions, is what truly helped me. Also, I have reached a point in life where I play by the rules of what is kept in front of me because you can’t fight against time. It’s the most futile and difficult battle in the world. So, it is important to make time an ally in good and bad times, particularly the latter, with thoughts of ‘this too shall pass’,” he says.

Comedy as Therapy

Through these stressful times, Danish has delivered relentless comedy via his viral ‘lockdown conversations’ videos. With great humour, he manages to seamlessly channel all our frustrations and obsessions during this lockdown using bizarre household items as props as a replacement for a mobile phone like a room freshener aerosol can, tissue boxes and even a bottle of rum.

Thanks to his inch-perfect characters, which represent different strata of Bengaluru’s society, and hilarious imitations of their accents, his videos on Twitter alone have crossed on an average 100,000 views, not to mention other social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and TikTok.

Conversations about 18% GST on Parotta 📞😬 pic.twitter.com/8SDe0xcoZN

— Danish Sait (@DanishSait) June 12, 2020

How does he deliver relentless comedy through these difficult times? How does he find humour through so much adversity?

“My only take is what choice do I have. You wouldn’t like it if I sat down brooding, and I’d rather celebrate whatever is out there. Also, there is nothing else I know how to do. I can’t become a doctor, grow a vegetable or cook something. I feel like a lot of people don’t put up stuff online because of fear of failure. In my case, I have nothing to lose. It’s the only thing I know how to do, and if I don’t, somebody else will. Now that I have done it, I feel happy and great. At least I have made most of my time during this lockdown,” he says.

When the lockdown started, a lot of people—right from his family to his management team— were extremely worried about him and kept calling to ask whether he was fine or needed anything.

Although he said all was well, he realised his need to see a therapist first.

“Mental health is the basis of everything. When I fix that, now I am good to go. If these one-minute clips failed, I would have kept trying other things. In many ways, comedy was therapy because whatever is happening around us isn’t good news. So, what do you do? You either ride the tide or get washed away. I don’t want to be washed away because I tried to wash myself away once. I don’t want to do it again,” says Danish with real defiance.

“Honestly, if it weren’t for the comedy, I would have gone into my shell and cried, which I did for a bit initially. That’s when I realised that my mental health is going to be of top priority in this period because I was going to be locked up. See, I love working because it helps me forget my miseries. I do, what I do to escape the mundanities of everyday life,” he adds.

Lockdown Conversations

These one-minute lockdown conversation clips started when the lockdown began in late March.

Through these videos, we have come across memorable characters who are all played by Danish. There’s  ‘Ramoorthy,’ the Kannadiga uncle, ‘Jaya’, who is a house help, her benevolent employer ‘Didi’ who speaks in a high pitched anglicized accent, the spoilt Bengaluru boys who say ‘machaa’ and ‘bro,’ the religious Muslim man who counsels a young female relative but knows nothing, the faux ‘feminist’ women and of course, Jaya’s drunk husband who usually makes an appearance in dark glasses towards the end.

My personal favourites are Jaya and Didi, particularly the latter. Didi is the benevolent employer who always wants to talk to Jaya, take her out for meals sometimes, discuss family and everything.

“My inspiration for that character is my mother. We had a domestic help named Jaya, and another lady named Pushpa and I have seen her closely interact with them over the years. She has always been kind to them—conversing about family, children, and their lives. Of course, it’s funny sometimes and I have obviously heightened the emotion of whatever she says,” says Danish.

He says that a lot of his comedy comes from personal experiences, because without them, it is hard to replicate and duplicate situations. For the first video he made about the domestic help not showing up because of the lockdown, he actually spoke to five of his friends and their wives, and realised that all of them were having similar conversations.

But another fascinating facet of his comedy is that unlike many of his contemporaries, he isn’t confrontational. Without being highly critical of governments, politicians or famous personalities, he jokes land nearly all the time. That’s not because of his ridiculous props or funny accents, but because there is a subtle streak of social and political commentary.

From expressing the inability of many in the South to understand the Prime Minister’s sanskritised Hindi during his 8 PM addresses to the ridiculous furore surrounding the ‘Boycott Chinese Products’ trending on social media, he does his bit.

“In one of my videos, where the characters are discussing the opening up of flights following the lockdown, Didi tells Jaya, ‘my sister is coming from Delhi.’ In response, Jaya asks, ‘Chalke aa rahi hai, Didi?’ (Is she walking down to Bengaluru?). It’s both funny and goes on to show the class divide that exists. It shows how one class is taking flights and another unfortunately has to make the treacherous journey back home on foot. People are laughing at the joke, but thinking about these issues as well,” he says.

Conversations about flights reopening! Thanks for the phone @RedmiIndia 😬 pic.twitter.com/3JkJi3uEg6

— Danish Sait (@DanishSait) May 22, 2020

His clips resonate because these are real conversations people are having at this time. It’s impossible to be a great comic without being present and a sharp observer. Moreover, his presence online is more about the relevance of his content versus mere presence.

“I could put up a picture of myself on Instagram, but that would be just to say that I am present and really have nothing to say. There was a phase when I went through it and that’s the pressure of the industry we work in. No one tells you the difference between presence and relevance. As a comic, the idea is to pick up conversations and observations that are relevant to what’s going on today. The key element here is awareness. I am no expert on COVID-19, but I am aware of things happening around me. I am living in that moment,” he says.

Also, there is skill in what he does. For example, take the video clip following PM Modi’s ‘Atma Nirbhar’ speech on 13 May, which was a straight improv piece. Of course, there is the craft, which he practices at a high level, but then there are the characters he creates.

“It’s easier to say things through them than say it yourself. The moment I figure out what this character is going to say, I am going to make my life simpler as compared to thinking about what I am personally going to say. I have my opinions, but they are good for my family and friends to know about. At this moment, I don’t want to be heard in public. But the moment I get into character, it becomes a lot simpler,” he adds.

Radio Created The Internet Star

It was in 2009/10, that Danish returned to Bengaluru after an unsuccessful stint on the radio in Bahrain and Dubai.

“I was very disheartened, but luckily, for me, that was when I met Darius Poonawalla, who is one the biggest names Bengaluru radio has ever produced, and he became my friend and mentor. Unlike other industries and jobs, where there are people who will invariably guide you and tell you right from wrong, in the entertainment industry you don’t meet them easily,” recalls Danish.

Soon, he was hired as a radio jockey by Fever 104 FM. There, for nearly a decade, he entertained the city with his show ‘Supari,’ where he made prank calls on unsuspecting listeners.

“Working on shows like Supari on Fever 104 FM was my school—I learnt so much there, especially about my boundaries and strengths as an entertainer. I also learnt the power of a minute. You can literally make someone laugh in a minute, become a part of their life, and make them a part of yours as well. Of course, you need discipline to constantly put out content. If I had done one video, and not done anything for another 15 days, nobody would care. You need to keep doing it whether you’re making mistakes. We learn on the job. After doing 3,000 minutes of prank calls on Supari, the fact remains that I still don’t know what works and doesn’t. In the process of doing radio and uploading calls on the internet, however, I realized how many options exist today for us entertainers,” he says.

Looking Ahead

Danish has already made forays into cinema with films like ‘Humble Politician Nograj,’ a Kannada-English comedy film directed by his friend Saad Khan, in 2018.

Playing the lead role, he won the ‘Best Debut Actor’ award at the South Indian International Movie Awards, also known as the SIIMA Awards. He has a sequel web series coming out soon, although there is some shooting still left to do.

Currently, Danish is excited about his new Kannada-English-Urdu film French Biryani, which will appear on Amazon Prime Video in July, where he plays an auto-rickshaw driver ferrying a French tourist around Bengaluru.

“But I don’t know what’s next looking at the way the world is going. The only objective now is to be happy, live everyday well, be kind to people around me and do what I have been doing to drown out the cacophony from outside. It’s about living every moment well and seeing where life takes you. After all, nothing is permanent,” he concludes.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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I have this habit of looking at food pictures when a sudden wave of cravings hits me. This often happens late at night when I can do nothing to get over the self-induced hunger pangs.

As I scroll through Instagram, I come across a picture of perfectly cooked paper-thin masala dosas, with a side of coconut chutney and sambar, with onions garnished on the top.

Upon further inspection (and after having worn my glasses), I see that the food has been moulded from clay in miniature form! The paint and the textures of each of the components on the miniature plate are so realistic.

These food miniatures are created by Chennai-based mother-daughter duo Sudha and Neha Chandranarayan. They have created over 100+ designs.

Two years ago, when Neha was celebrating her eighteenth birthday, her mum decided to give her a dosa miniature made from clay. Neha was excited and showed off the beautiful artwork to her friends.

Since then, Neha’s friends requested similar designs and Sudha happily made clay miniatures of maggi, pani puri, vada pav, and pav bhaji, either as fridge magnets or key chains. The recipients would be ecstatic on receiving them.

“My mother has been working with clay art for about 15 years and is a self-taught miniaturist. Seeing the response from family and friends, I asked her if we could make our miniatures accessible to others beyond our close circle,” smiles the 20-year-old Computer Science student.

Thus, in February this year, the duo started selling their clay food miniatures under ‘CN Arts Miniatures’ through their website. Depending on the dishes, the sizes are between 3 and 11 cm.

Now, they get close to 150 orders a month from across the country and even abroad to Singapore, Malaysia, and the US!

An artist at heart and homemaker by choice

“Since I was a child, I have loved dabbling in art. I would paint, sculpt, do crafts; it was my source of joy,” says 50-year-old Sudha. She nurtured this talent in Neha as well.

Fifteen years ago, when the family lived in Mumbai, Sudha pursued a short course in clay art.

“I made jewellery, life-sized flowers, bonsai, and succulents using clay and decorated our house with these pieces or gifted them,” says Sudha.

In 2013, after the family moved to Chennai, Sudha set up a small workshop in their house. Whatever artistic skills she had learnt over the years, it was time to share it with others.

Hence, in 2015, she started conducting classes for people between the ages of 18 to 80. This year, on Neha’s insistence, she decided to reinvent herself as an entrepreneur.

Making of the food miniatures

Because of the intricate detail in the miniatures, each component takes a significant amount of time.

“We use air-dry natural clay which is eco-friendly as compared to polymer clay which contains PVC and is manufactured artificially,” states Sudha.

The duo makes each of the components separately and fixes them together with glue. After this, the artwork is painted, coated with a sealant, and left to dry.

“We make every component — from the vegetables to the rice grains and even the mustard seeds — on our own,” emphasises Neha.

And being artists along with foodies, perfection is key for the mother-daughter duo. A masala dosa, for example, takes about a day where the clay needs to be dried and painted. But, recreating thalis from Northern and Southern parts of the country, which contain almost 15 dishes, takes nearly three days, with about six hours of work each day. The final products are accordingly priced between Rs 400 and Rs 1,500.

Combining food and art to deliver happiness

Making realistic food miniatures is more difficult than it appears. Getting the shape, colour, and texture right is the biggest challenge, informs Neha. And, since each of these pieces is handmade, they can only accept limited orders a month.

“Sometimes, people approach us with large orders for custom miniatures and want them to be delivered quickly. It is difficult for us to fulfil these requests but we push ourselves to complete the orders with perfection,” says Neha.

Their hard work and determination landed them some large orders from overseas! “We got an order of 100 miniature dosa fridge magnets from the US. The clients were Indians who were throwing a housewarming party. They were happy with the final products,” says Sudha.

Sudha’s workshops are quite popular. Kamala Venkatesan, a homemaker, is a regular participant, attending six workshops. An avid craftsperson, Kamala uses fabric to make dolls for friends and family.

She first learnt about Sudha on a Facebook group of doll enthusiasts. “Sudha taught me how to mould clay into shapes of fruits, vegetables, snacks, and sweets. She also patiently taught us each step of the process. The workshop was such a gratifying experience and I look forward to attending more of these when the circumstances improve,” says the 49-year-old.

Now, the mother-daughter duo continues to practice and perfect their artwork. They also want to experiment with dishes from different cuisines.

“Crafting is my life. Not a single day goes without creating something. Since food is something that can bring joy, we are giving people pieces that they can cherish. This makes us feel like a part of their celebrations,” says Sudha, signing off.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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“Paintings are universal, there are no prerequisites to understand them. All it takes is your creative imagination,” Gaukaran Patil expresses through his feet via sign language.

A gifted painter from Chhattisgarh’s Bhilai district, Gaukaran was born without hands. He also has a speech and hearing impairment. But those are not disabilities for him.

In fact, he sees them as blessings in disguise, for he has a rare talent of painting with his feet. He can effortlessly hold a brush between his toes and create a stunning picture.

The 35-year-old was raised by a single mother along with two siblings in Bhilai. He also completed a Masters in Fine Arts.

Gaukaran’s school teacher was first to notice his talent and the wonders he could do with his legs.

“Though people around me found it strange that I was writing with my toes, my mother never gave up on me, and encouraged me to complete my education just like every other child. My teachers saw I was a natural when it came to drawing. The appreciation made me feel welcome. Besides, I truly enjoyed it,” he says.

After completing his education, Gaukaran started painting for a living, and so far, he has sold over 500 of them. All his paintings are sold via social media and through word of mouth.

Two years ago, he also joined the Kopal Vani Shravan Badhit Aavasiya Vidyalaya in Raipur to mentor hearing-impaired students in computers and painting.

His zeal and sincerity towards his artistic abilities also garnered the attention of India’s former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, and Sonia Gandhi who have purchased his paintings during their visits to the state.

Recently, a video featuring Gaukaran went viral. He was dipping his brush in the paint bottle with his toes and making a picture. It was uploaded on Twitter by IAS Priyanka Shukla.

“Gokaran Patil is a huge source of inspiration for those who give up after going through rough patches in life,” she wrote.

Here is a collection of Gaukaran’s stunning paintings:

Note: This interview was done with the help of Seema Chabra, a teacher at Kopal Vani. We thank her for translating the interview.

If you wish to support Patil by purchasing his paintings, write to kopalvani@gmail.com.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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In all honesty, the first time I had ever heard of legendary playwright, director and producer Satyadev Dubey was not through one of his plays, but an interview veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal gave to Cinestaan in June 2017. Funnily enough, the interview wasn’t even about Dubey, but the actor Amrish Puri and how he used the money earned from commercial films to fund standout theatre groups like the Mumbai-based Theatre Unit.

“He [Amrish Puri] had become a popular star and villain in commercial films. This is where the money came from. But he helped a lot of people with that money. He kept the poor Theatre Unit going. When Satyadev Dubey would do a play, the production was paid for by Amrish. Nobody knew that was happening,” said Shyam Benegal.

Reading this quote, I thought to myself ‘who is this Satyadev Dubey’? Why would one of the all time great actors take the trouble of paying for this man’s production? What was it about Satyadev Dubey that elicited such kindness and loyalty from one of the all time great actors? What ensued was a frantic Google search about this unique personality. I found hundreds of tributes, remembrances, anecdotes and even an obituary in The New York Times dedicated to Satyadev Dubey, who was fondly known as ‘Dubey Ji’ to many.

A simple Google Search opened my eyes to a figure, who trained and inspired generations of Indian actors including Amrish Puri, Amol Palekar, Nasseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Govind Nihalani, Sulabha Deshpande, Mohan Bhandari, Harish Patel, Sonali Kulkarni and even Akshaye Khanna before he began acting in films. He also inspired and continues to inspire generations of playwrights, directors and producers.

Born into an upper-caste family in Bilaspur on 13 July, 1936, Dubey had aspirations of becoming a cricket player while studying at a Mumbai college in the early 1950s. All that changed when he was introduced to theatre and began acting in Theatre Unit, a Mumbai troupe run by director Ebrahim Alkazi.

When Alkazi left to take over the National School of Drama in Delhi by the early 1960s, Dubey took over the reins and produced a series of plays including “Andha Yug”, an anti-war Hindi play written by Dharamvir Bharati and “Yayati”, a Kannada play written by Girish Karnad which was translated into Hindi with Amrish Puri in a lead role.

These plays would go on to change the landscape of modern theatre in India.

As the man responsible for reviving and modernising Hindi theatre through the 1960s and 1970s, he was a key actor in creating a pan-Indian theatre consciousness by producing plays translated from different Indian languages like Gujarati, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi. He was a man ruthlessly brilliant in his commitment to theatre.

But there were two things I still wanted to know about Dubey Ji. Was Shyam Benegal’s anecdote about Amrish Puri and Dubey Ji true? Also, what was it about Dubey Ji that elicited such kindness and loyalty? In my search for persons who could offer me an insight into the man’s life, I found his grandson Satyajeet Dubey, an actor, on Instagram.

Sending him a direct message on Instagram, I asked him whether Shyam Benegal’s assertions about his grandfather were true. After waiting for over a day, he responded in the affirmative, but added that he didn’t know much about the entire affair. Instead he pointed me towards one of Dubey Ji’s students and acclaimed theatre actor Hidayat Sami.

Besides offering me some unique insights into how Dubey Ji trained his actors, Sami didn’t really have in-depth answers to my questions about the Amrish Puri anecdote. He said that this had happened well before his time on stage and association with Dubey Ji.

Instead, he was kind enough to get me in touch with two people who shared a very close relationship with Dubey Ji—legendary theatre director, thespian and protege Sunil Shanbag and Lata Sharma, an actor and a close confidant.

Speaking to both of them, it’s evident that Dubey Ji left an indelible impression on so many lives. Maybe this is how he inspired such loyalty from the likes of Amrish Puri.

“Even when Puri Saab wasn’t a very successful film actor, his deep sense of loyalty to Dubey was always there. He always supported Dubey regardless of whether it was with money or any other way. Whenever Puri Saab had time, he would personally come for a performance, sit backstage with us and meet us after the show. His loyalty and support went much beyond just the financial assistance he would offer every now and then,” says Sunil Shanbag, in an exclusive conversation with The Better India.

“There are three generations of actors who have trained under him. Many of them have gone on to become successful actors. Once again, it depends on how you define success. Some have successfully transitioned into mainstream cinema, while others continue to perform on stage till this day and are doing very well because of their skill and craft,” he adds.

But what was it about Dubey Ji that elicited such love, respect and loyalty?

Satyadev Dubey, the man

“Dubey was a total maverick with amazing foresight who was way ahead of his time,” recalls Lata Sharma with a tone of nostalgia emanating from her voice. “Although he had a very short temper which mellowed with age, he was a father figure to all of us.”

If he saw potential in anyone, which they may not have recognized it themselves, he went all out to ensure that they made the most of their inherent skills. He was usually bang on about identifying that potential and was willing to give his time, energy and patience, she recalls.

However, it’s his selflessness as a teacher which really stood out, according to Sharma. Since Dubey’s needs were so limited, there was never a commercial angle to any work he did. This was also reflected in his simple living situation. Sharma speaks of how he had just one mattress on the floor, a chair and a wall of books lining his room.

“It’s nearly impossible to keep track of the number of notable actors and actresses he taught. Dubey Ji held workshops for free distributing passages to anyone that walked in and asked them to memorize it. He would teach impromptu exercises to improve their speech, stance and posture. There were spaces like the Prithvi Theatre, which back in the 1970s was a lot quieter than it’s today. At a cafe there, he would host these workshops once a week. Nearly 25-30 people came there, consisting of struggling actors and actresses or people who just wanted a little more confidence to face situations in their professional lives,” she recalls.

Major actors, who had crossed over into mainstream cinema, would willingly offer their assistance, money or time to Dubey for his productions in whatever capacity. That also comes from the fact many of them are actors from the National School of Drama (NSD).

Every year for a number of years, he was invited by NSD to do a production with final year students. Casting them in his plays and seeing their potential, Dubey never failed in mentioning their names to his friends in the film industry. He would recommend their names to people in the industry or just state them in passing during a gathering of people who matter that they should watch for this young man or woman coming out of NSD.

“Many of these actors got their major break or a foot in the door while approaching filmmakers or production houses because of his recommendation. A lot of them may or may not acknowledge it, but deep down each one of them knows how much Dubey Ji’s words mattered. That is something which I think makes them grateful. If they remembered that, somewhere along the line they would have liked to repay him. But there was nothing material they could give him in return because his personal needs were minimal although he occasionally enjoyed his glass of Blue Label whiskey,” recalls Sharma.

Dubey’s purpose was always set towards furthering the gospel of theatre.

“Dubey Ji’s personality was such that whenever he needed help, he was never embarrassed to ask. And he always asked for help on his own terms. For example, if a performance was coming up and the advertising would cost Rs 15,000, he would ask you to pay the advertising company directly, and not deposit the money with him. You have a long list of people who have always stepped in to help pay for food during rehearsals or donate cushions, toys or other household items for the set because he had this uncanny ability to bring people together. I personally know Nasseruddin Shah always stepped in to help in any capacity whenever he was called upon. He touched people who worked with him in a way few can describe. Not many people would ever refuse to help him,” says Shanbag.

Dubey’s Gharana of Acting

At the heart of this gratitude that many of his students and contemporaries offered was his dedicated approach to his craft. His theatre centred around words and texts. What always fascinated him was the world of words and ideas. A lot of his training centred around these elements.

“As actors, we were trained very rigorously in the way we spoke the words and how we extracted meaning from them. That was the fundamental basis of his training and all the technical aspects that went into that. Besides, his was a very minimal sort of theatre. He didn’t depend too much on set design, lighting, costumes, etc. For him, the primary focus was the actor and the text and everything that went with these elements was at the core of his training. You would find that most of the young actors who trained under him articulate the text in a very particular way independent of the language,” says Shanbag.

There was a certain formality in the way his actors articulated their text. In fact, there was a criticism at one point that all Dubey-trained actors are the same. But that’s how the training was and it was a school of theatre in itself like a Gharana in classical Indian music.

“Dubey Ji also had an extremely sharp ear and a great sense of editing text. He was a master of choreography as a director. By choreography, I don’t mean movement or dance choreography, but the ability to move actors on stage to create a parallel narrative. His choreography added another layer to the text. Movements on stage in a Dubey production were never superfluous because they always added something to what the text was trying to say. He was a very demanding taskmaster. Everything was very rigorous with him. Nothing was done casually. Even conversations were intense and passionate with him,” he adds.

Since there was so much emphasis on actors, text and movement on stage, Dubey’s theatre was minimalistic in its own right as well. Most theatre functions under limited resources. Often, necessity becomes a virtue. You don’t have money for lighting, sets and costumes, but have actors and text, and they become the fundamental pillars of your work. Naturally, as a producer you concentrate on what’s available–actors and a script.

“See, the thing is his sets were never elaborate. He would sometimes get a friend or acquaintance looking to catch a break in the industry as a set designer to design it for him. To obtain funds that would help him execute the set design, he would write an ad, do a bit role in films, write a lot of dialogue and screenplays,” says Sharma.

Just so that we know, he won the 1978 National Film Award for Best Screenplay for Shyam Benegal’s ‘Bhumika’ and 1980 Filmfare Best Dialogue Award for ‘Junoon’.

“Dubey Ji never looked to earn money in the conventional sense. If he needed it, the money would come from a short gig he would take up or from somewhere else. Also, you have to note that the scale of theatre productions were much more modest back in the 1960s and 70s. Today, it’s very difficult for small groups to survive,” she recalls.

People are today making a living out of theatre, which wasn’t really the case 40 years ago. Dubey never looked at how he could recover the money on his production or how long it should run, etc. He would often say in these times ‘chalna hoga toh chalega’.

“In those days, smaller towns and cities invited a lot of theatre groups from Bombay. We got some money, but otherwise it was like a picnic and sometimes that money would be kept aside for the next production. Today, theatre productions begin with the budget, before one can even contemplate a reading of the play,” says Sharma.

Pan-India Theatre

A great conversationalist, his acquaintances often say that he loved to get into discussions, enjoyed sharing his excitement of a piece of theatre he had seen or read, always dreamt up a new project or organised a reading of a new play someone wrote. He loved the energy of being with people. Invariably, he was the focal point of a lot of get-togethers.

Back in the 1970s, when film producer Vinod Doshi gave him the entire ground floor of Walchand Terrace in Tardeo for four years as a rehearsal space, it turned into a great meeting point for all the legends of theatre at that time.

At a time when communicating with people across cities wasn’t so easy, he would ask for scripts from Bengal, Delhi, Karnataka, would organise translation of these scripts often in Hindi and many of them would get produced on stage. In fact, he was one of the key persons in informing actors in Mumbai that they weren’t working in isolation, but were part of a contemporary and blossoming pan-India scene.

“Dubey Ji often travelled around different cities like Kolkata and Delhi and had friends there. In Kolkata, for example, he had friends like Shyamanand Jalan. In Delhi, he would meet Rajinder Paul. They would call him up and say ‘hey, we found this very interesting script by Badal Babu (Badal Sarkar) and you must read it’. Dubey Ji would invariably respond by asking for the script, get it translated, organise readings and made available to any director in Bombay interested in producing this play,” argues Shanbag.

What would have otherwise been restricted to Bengal now moves to another part of the country, available in translation (mostly Hindi) and directors from various parts of India produce it. These plays moved around India. This is before the days of easy phone calls, emails or any of it. It was indeed a laborious process.

Dubey Ji worked with plays from so many different languages translated in Hindi, of course, whether it’s from Europe, Bengal or Karnataka and produce them from Hindi adaptation of Albert Camus’s “Cross Purpose” and Jean-Paul Sartre’s “No Exit” to Girish Karnad’s “Hayavadana” and Vijay Tendulkar’s “Khamosh! Adalat Jaari Hai”.

There is no question he created this theatrical sensibility that went well beyond Mumbai.

Shanta Gokhale, a noted writer and theatre historian, who has also written a book documenting his outstanding work called ‘Satyadev Dubey: A Fifty-Year Journey Through Theatre’, best describes this particular aspect, when she writes,

“Satyadev Dubey made his theatre in Mumbai the crucible of a pan-Indian, pan-world theatre consciousness by producing plays translated from different Indian and European languages. This cross-pollination gave audiences the first glimmer of a larger Indian theatre sensibility. To date he is credited with directing and producing over a hundred theatre productions in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and English, many of which are considered landmarks in modern Indian theatre. The influence of his style of theatre can be found across the country.”

Legacy

He passed away on December 25, 2011 at the age of 75 in Mumbai, but it’s virtually impossible to encapsulate the legacy he leaves behind. He touched people’s hearts in so many different ways.

For Lata Sharma, who acted in only two of his plays but also took care of everything in his personal life from finances, health, and doctor visits, Dubey was a father figure.

“To someone else he was something else. He was a confidant, counsellor and so much more. And not everyone became actors out of their interactions with him, but they sure became better people. His influence went way beyond theatre. He was a friend, guide and mentor to lots of people who often gave sound advice on their regular lives. A man with a patient ear, Dubey Ji wasn’t judgmental and that’s what made him such a wonderful human being. I think those facets went along being a legendary theatre personality,” recalls Sharma.

From not knowing anything at all about Satyadev Dubey, I had moved to a place where I sort of understood why many legendary actors held him in such high regard. There is a lot more to learn about Dubey Ji, and in all honesty, this is only the beginning.

(Edited by Vinayak Hegde)

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With lockdown restrictions easing in most parts of the world, and our country, wearing a mask has become mandatory. It is almost the next indispensable fashion accessory.

Facing the challenges posed by the pandemic and turning the crisis into an opportunity, individuals and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across India are stepping in to make reusable cloth masks. Inspired by the PM’s speech to make India self-sufficient, many are creating job opportunities for hundreds of artisans, tailors, weavers, within their communities. They’re also using the opportunity to support home-grown fabrics interlaced with traditional prints and embroidery.

Some are designing masks inspired by fictional characters to encourage children, while a few designs promote regional art. The artworks span almost every state of India — from Rajasthan’s Phad paintings to Kalamkari from Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal’s Kantha print to Tamil Nadu’s Toga embroidery. Some designers are fusing traditional, contemporary, and western designs.

Here’s a look at how individuals across India beat the lockdown odds and created employment opportunities for local communities by going ‘Vocal for Local’.

1. Indian Yards, Coonoor, Tamil Nadu

Coonoor-based Indian Yards is run by Suhas Ramegowda and Sunita Suhas. In 2017, they gave up their urban lifestyle in Bengaluru and moved to the Nilgiris for a better quality of life. They bought a piece of land, spent time farming, and worked in the fields alongside tribes.

“During this time, we realised that women in the community wanted to do much more with their lives. Mostly, they were homemakers with an interest in sewing, who didn’t have the platform to convert their skills into a livelihood opportunity. That is when we started Indian Yards, a platform through which they could express themselves,” says Suhas.

Through their livelihood programme AGAI, meaning ‘flourish’ in Tamil, they worked with 50 women from the rural and tribal communities, who became fine crafters of fabric.

When the lockdown was imposed, the husband-wife duo was caught unawares. With the ‘will do’ attitude of their team, they got going. They were approached by a Nilgiris-based NGO, Keystone, to make cotton face masks for the local police force and sanitation workers. Supplying these to the government meant they had permission to move around, making it easy for their supply chain, but also allowing them to train their women.

“We grabbed this opportunity and came up with sustainable and functional mask designs. We went from door-to-door, training our community every time we came up with a new design. We delivered different materials to their doorsteps, some of which were hand-woven and naturally-dyed cotton fabrics from Karnataka, and picked up finished masks from them.”

With regional and inter-border collaborations, Indian Yards incorporated the Toda embroidery art form — native to the Nilgiris. While the women of the Toda tribe did the embroidery — geometric shapes are woven using a red and a black thread over a white background, the duo designed and used the embroidery to make masks. A Nilgiris-based firm, Last Forest, sold over 700 of these Toda masks.

If there’s something the pandemic has taught Suhas and Sunita, it’s the simplistic outlook of their artisans. “There have been numerous instances when we visited our team, and their husbands stepped into the kitchen to make tea for us. Knowing that in India, male dominance is still the culture, it is heartening to see this change in their households.”

Environmentally conscious, Indian Yards has sold more than 40,000 masks since the lockdown. Their masks range from ₹15-95, while the Toda masks are priced at ₹225. Since the Toda women do only the embroidery, and different organisations make a wide range of products using the embroidery, the women get 75 per cent of the revenues generated through the sales of their embroidered designs.

Look them up on Instagram.

2. KAARII Designs, Jaipur, Rajasthan

Jaipur-based Rajat Rungta and Harshi Agrawal, co-founders of Kaarii Designs, an SME, have a different story.

“As Indians, we value foreign products more than homemade or indigenous ones. Even if the Indian products are sold by a foreign company, we are willing to pay the extra premium,” points Harshi.

This was when the duo decided to launch products and accessories for kids and adults in 2019, aiming to provide the highest quality standards, with an amalgamation of trendy designs, and a sense of sustainability.

“When the lockdown was eased, we saw this opportunity to sew masks to support our workers and generate employment. We’ve been experimenting with cotton and reusable masks,” points the 29-year-old artist.

Using their family-run textile unit, they were able to provide for their team of 50, who directly or indirectly helped stitch the masks. “Times are tough, but we are making sure we don’t lay off our workers but support them financially to cover their daily expenses,” adds Rajat.

Harshi, a doodle-artist, has used doodles in her masks to make them especially attractive for children. Kaarii’s mask motifs have zentangle flowers, animals, and characters, apart from regional prints. The highlight designs are those inspired by the fiction series, Harry Potter.

“The idea behind deviating from our regular production — home linen, quilts, bedsheets, baby tents, etc. was to generate revenues so that every member of our professional family had food at the end of the day.”

With their masks ranging from ₹13-80, KAARII has sold more than one lakh pieces since the lockdown.

Check out their website or look them up on Instagram.

3. Shimona Mehta, Bhadravathi, Karnataka

Fashion Artist Shimona Mehta was working in Bengaluru before the lockdown. She made it back to her small town in Bhadravathi just in time and decided to put her learnings from her student days at Pearl Academy in Jaipur to use. She also had experience at a renowned Fashion design house, Anna Sui, in New York.

“I started by conceptualising contemporary and western designs, and patterns on different fabrics to make timeless pieces. What started as a fun learning project eventually gained so much attention. That’s when I realised the dire shortage of masks, and how people were looking for comfortable, chic, and breathable masks,” says the 25-year-old designer.

With the perfect opportunity, Shimona boarded local tailors and sewists. She was confident that she could fuse western designs with traditional ideas to make masks using locally available materials.

“With masks being so much in demand, we experiment on new styles once a week. Since my masks use ruffles, which require precision, I also trained my team to stitch fine-tailored and finished masks.”

Celebrating the craftsmanship of the local artisans, Shimon points out, “This ‘vocal for local’ initiative is not only about providing tailors with a livelihood but also upscaling their existing skills. This also empowers them.”

Providing artisans with an opportunity and a platform to learn new skills has a psychological impact on them. “I’ve seen a sense of joy and happiness in them when they see the masks they stitched sell across India. Having always stitched traditional clothes like petticoats and blouses, it’s an awe-inspiring moment for them to express their creativity through masks and western wear.”

44-year-old Shobha Prasanna Kumar, who works with Shimona, is left surprised every time the team works together. She is unable to believe her eyes on the completion of a mask and asks herself, “Did I make this?”

Since the inception of her project, Shimona has sold more than 300 masks and range from ₹70-600. Ask her what’s in the pipeline, and the young designer expounds, “I hope to start a fashion clothing line experimenting with some extraordinary styles. This will allow me to stay connected with the artisans and keep them employed.”

Check out their website or look them up on Instagram.

4. Nishi Srivastava, The Craftsutra, Delhi

Nishi Srivastava, the founder of The Craftsutra, started the platform three years ago to promote Indian art and craft, although she has been involved in reviving dying art forms for almost a decade. In 2013, when she was backpacking in Kutch, Gujarat, she saw how the Lippan kaam, an art form indigenous to the region, was dying. Families weren’t keen on passing the skills to their children. Nishi decided to revive it and held more than 50 workshops.

Through her initiative ‘Masks of India’, Nishi encourages artisans from different Indian states to use regional art and crafts on hand-crafted masks. The idea was to promote Indian art and provide a sustainable livelihood for artists, artisans, and designers. “Masks are not only about making a style statement but also about keeping the needs of our community of artisans.”

She continues, “During this pandemic, masks have become a necessity. Unlike the surgical disposable masks that can harm the environment, masks under the initiative are eco-friendly, light, reusable, and biodegradable,” says the 30-year-old.

With a network of artisans making masks, Nishi gives an account of the art clusters she works with. “Artisans from Bhopal and Madhya Pradesh are using the Gond art form, while Lucknow’s Chikankari embroidery is mostly reserved for Indian wear; we have encouraged our weavers to up their creative styles and use them in masks instead.”

Nishi’s network also includes award-winning artist Kalyan Joshi from Bhilwara in Rajasthan. His famous Phad paintings are inspiring wedding masks.

“Artisans from the Khatri community in Gujarat’s Kutch are using the ajrakh block prints and ikat prints. Telangana’s Cheriyal paintings, most commonly seen on scrolls, are also being hand-painted on masks. Rural artisans from Assam are making masks using Eri silk, that’s known for its cooling properties in the summers and warmth in the winters.”

So far, West Bengal’s Kantha embroidery and Andhra Pradesh’s Kalamkari prints have been an instant hit on the platform. Since it’s barely been two weeks that Nishi started the initiative, she concludes, “The artisans are hopeful about their work as these masks not only represent the culture of unity in diversity but are also in line with the PM’s message of the ‘Make in India’ initiative.”

Masks on the platform range from ₹90-1,000. Check out their website or look them up on Instagram.

The pandemic might have made wearing masks mandatory but they also threaten the environment, leading to ocean pollution. We can be responsible and make smart choices by using eco-friendly, reusable masks that serve many purposes. Not only will they help in protecting ourselves and safeguarding others, but also in empowering artisans.

(Written by Ridhi Agrawal and Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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A duo shows up on the brightly lit stage of the famous talent hunt, America’s Got Talent. Sonali and Sumanth, the young performers, stand in front of the judges, which include Simon Cowell, notorious for his hard-to-please persona.

Proudly, the duo from Kolkata, says, “We are the BAD Salsa group,” a name that is immediately intriguing for the judges and the audience that waits to be wowed.

Quintessential Bollywood music plays in the background, but the moves get everyone’s attention.

With fast-paced flips, twirls, lifts and a mash-up of salsa moves, the duo performs with smiles on their faces. The ease and confidence with which each dance step is executed show the time and effort that must have gone into perfecting every move.

Throughout the performance, Simon Cowell has a bright smile across his face. And the performance ends to thunderous applause from all.

Sonali Majumdar and Sumanth Maroju express how that day was momentous for them. More so for Bivash Chowdhury, their choreographer, and founder of BAD, which stands for the Bivash Academy of Dance. Bivash has been training the children for close to a decade now. What makes the three special is their journey of hard work and grit.

Sonali is a farmer’s daughter from rural West Bengal. Sumanth, on the other hand, would travel almost seven hours from Odisha to Kolkata to attend the classes. Bivash, their mentor and choreographer, also had an inspiring journey.

In conversation with The Better India, the trio shares their experience while telling us how they achieved global fame.

From a farm to centre stage

“I started dancing when I was only three-years-old. I would often dance on the stage at melas and the events in my village. Everyone would appreciate me and tell my father that he should encourage me to dance,” begins Sonali.

She hails from Sholoardari, a village in West Bengal, almost bordering Bangladesh. Her father is a farmer who grows rice, bananas, and vegetables while her mother is a homemaker. Although struggling to make ends meet, he was determined to fulfill his daughter’s dreams.

“Someone from my village had given my father the contact of Bivash sir, and we decided to take a trip to Kolkata. On tracking down the academy, my father was relieved,” recalls Sonali, who was only about seven-years-old then. She is 16 now.

Her father, Shonnashi Majumdar, 43, has one bigha land and works on others’ lands. He had always felt his daughter’s potential of becoming a dancing star.

“She has been a talented dancer since birth. She couldn’t just walk, she would always be dancing around. And as she grew older, her talent and dedication motivated me further,” he recalls.

The proud father expresses how it was difficult for them to stay apart. But her success was worth the sacrifice.

“She fills my heart with pride every single day. It’s not just me, but everyone in the village feels this way, because she started with almost nothing. As a father, I only did what was in my power, but she accomplished everything else with her hard work and will power. That is truly amazing,” he says.

After speaking with Bivash, Sonali’s father was convinced that she had found the right mentor. “As a farmer, my father would hardly earn Rs 20 a day at the time. He knew that he couldn’t fulfill my dream, especially if I stayed in the village. Hence, he left me in Kolkata. Initially, I missed home a lot, but it got better with time,” shares Sonali.

The optimistic father now hopes that his daughter grows to accomplish everything she ever dreamt of. “We are here to have her back and support her throughout,” he says.

Sonali’s partner, Sumanth, on the other hand, always knew that dance was his true passion. Originally from Bhubaneswar where his father works in the Railways, he discovered Bivash Academy of Dance. He had seen another duo — Akash and Donna — also trained by Bivash go on the stage in India’s Got Talent (A ‘Got Talent’ franchisee of the reality show).

“Because I was so interested in dance, I enrolled in classes across Bhubaneswar, but it was not taught in a way that one could pursue it professionally. When I learnt about Bivash sir’s academy, I told my father about it, and luckily, he supported me,” says the 21-year old. Sumanth had started training at the age of 13.

However, travelling to Kolkata from Bhubaneswar every weekend was not a piece of cake. This trip was followed by four hours of practice on each of the two days until he returned home.

“But looking back, I am glad about the trips. It made me realise how dance was my passion, and I wouldn’t be here now if I had not worked hard then,” he says.

Fast-paced unique dance moves

The dynamic duo wouldn’t have pursued their passion if not for their mentor, Bivash. Not only did he see their potential but also trained them to be world-class dancers.

He began focusing on the two dancers when it was time for him to apply for India’s Got Talent (IGT) in 2012. “When Akash and Donna applied for IGT in 2011, we were the runners-up. But this time, I wanted my dancers to win and chose the two who could ultimately win the show,” recalls the 39-year-old.

Sonali and Sumanth were two of the six people chosen by Bivash who could represent his dance academy on stage. Initially paired with other dancers, Bivash ultimately decided to go with the two and created a dance duo that ultimately won IGT Season 4 that year.

Later, Sonali and Sumanth went on to participate in numerous shows like Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa and Dance Champion, among others. In 2019, when America’s Got Talent wrote to him inviting Sonali and Sumanth for an audition, he knew it was their moment to shine.

After hours of gruelling rehearsals, he did not expect anything less than a thundering response when they finally performed in February this year.

But there are 30 others like Sonali and Sumanth in his academy in Mumbai, popularly known as the Bad World Gurukul. He started it about eight years ago and trains them in hip-hop, salsa, Bollywood, aerial acts, semi-classical and other styles.

Struggling for nearly 12 years until he finally made a name for himself, Bivash understands the need to groom dancers with care and attention.

“I want to train all my students to become professional dancers. I am sure that Sonali and Sumanth can perform on stage for the next 15 years at least until they build a career and become choreographers. When I started, everyone thought that while choosing dancing as a career, one could become a background dancer at the most. I want to change that,” he says.

Now, Sonali and Sumanth are gearing up for the next round of AGT. The duo is excited, and their choreographer has prepared a dance routine to wow the judges. While Sumanth is optimistic about his dancing career in the future, Sonali knows dance is her life.

“No matter what mood I am in, dance has always brought me joy. I love it because I am my happiest self when I dance on stage,” she says.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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Floods in Assam are a yearly occurrence that threaten the lives of humans and wildlife alike. Seeing the devastation of the rains, Bhavana Barman reached out to the online community for help on 15 July via a Twitter post that quickly gained momentum. Her Twitter content is mainly about the South Korean boy band ‘BTS’ also known as the Bangtan Boys whom she admires ardently.

Naturally, a large chunk of her followers are fans of the seven-member K-pop band and they recognise themselves as the ‘BTS ARMY’.

The tweet moved various members of the BTS ARMY into action especially in India wherein they raised close to Rs 5.9 lakhs in just 24 hours for the Assam flood victims!

Bhavana clarifies that she did not start the campaign alone as reported by most media platforms. Instead, it a collaborative effort of the BTS ARMY community members who helped achieve the feat.

The Better India reports how the relief workers and volunteers of the BTS ARMY went about their operations inspired by the philanthropic work of the K-pop band.

BTS ARMY Moves into Action

Once Bhavana tweeted on the flood situation in Assam, a lot of BTS ARMY members not just from the Northeast but from across the country took notice.

“We had a personal chat group of BTS members on Twitter and Juhi, a fan from Mumbai started talking about the floods in Assam. We soon created another group of 30 members who wanted to help out for the cause. We immediately started researching on legitimate fundraising links and organisations who we could support in addition to amplifying the issue on social media platforms,” says 20-year-old Khachuk, a student of English Honours from Lady Sri Ram college.

The volunteers including Khachuk and Bhavana soon reached out to Kukikalyani Borgohain who identifies herself as ‘Khamseng’ (her pen name for her poetry), who had been working with ‘People for People’, founded in the backdrop of the Baghjan Oil disaster to carry out the relief work.

This voluntary organisation had previously raised about Rs. 13 lakh for relief work in Assam which had inspired trust among the BTS ARMY volunteers.

They urged Khamseng to send out a link for donations where people could contribute.

“On 16 July, the link went live at 1:30 p.m. and we tweeted about it everywhere and it blew up. When the link was initially set up, it was to raise Rs. 30,000 till 28 July. But we ended up raising Rs. 5.9 lakh in a matter of 24 hours!” says Khachuk.

Although the link is now closed, there is a new link that has been set up by the voluntary organisation to raise an additional Rs. 30,000 till 20 July. This is being currently managed by ‘People for People’ that is organising an e-concert to raise this amount. The link to the concert has been shared on Facebook page, ‘The Voice of North East India’.

Artists like Shankuraj Konwar, Nilutpal Bora, Johnny Marak, Bidyutjyoti Mohan, Bottle Rockets India, Jutimala Buragohain, Moniraj Hazarika, Farhad Hussain are set to perform to raise money for flood relief activities.

Additionally, BTS ARMY has also put out a new link to collect donations for Asaam Floods.

BTS: The Message of Love and Charity

“A lot of fans admit that they discover BTS when they need them the most. It was the same for me when I discovered them in 2015. I was not in a very good place at the time and their message of self-love inspired me. Their album ‘Love Yourself’ has really left a deep impression on me and helped me shape the person I am today,” says Khachuk earnestly.

Bhavana on the other hand discovered BTS in late 2017 when she watched a video of their dance performance on stage. Later, she ended up doing a lot of research on them and found the message they spread through their songs impactful.

“They focus on subjects like mental health, self-love, and humility when you translate the lyrics. There is no mention of drugs, nudity, violence and slurs which is so common otherwise. Their message of positivity is what sets them apart and shows that music has no language barriers,” explains the 23-year-old Economics Master’s student.

For Khamseng, reading the meaning of the lyrics moved her and she became a huge fan of the K-pop band. “As a poet myself, I found their lyrics so uplifting and powerful,” she says.

Earlier this month, BTS donated about $1 million to the Black Lives Matter movement. Subsequently, BTS fans across the globe mobilised the #MatchAMillion campaign where the fans also ended up raising an additional $1 million within 24 hours to support the campaign,” she adds.

In addition to the uplifting messages, in September 2018, the boy band was invited at the United Nations 73rd General Assembly to address the launch of the youth initiative ‘Youth 2030: The UN Youth Strategy’ and the UNICEF campaign ‘Generation Unlimited’. With their work, the K-pop continues to inspire scores of their fans not just in South Korea but across the world.

“To carry out charitable activities in India, we launched the ‘BTSARMY Helps India’ page on twitter to carry out charitable activities in the future. Now, our focus is to also help out with flood relief work in Bihar,” informs Bhavana.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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Astrophotography involves shooting celestial objects and events by taking sharp, detailed, close-up images of the planets in our solar system, and distant galaxies like Andromeda which are closest to our galaxy. The most important aspect is to know how and where to shoot from. A good camera with a good lens can also get satisfactory results. Of course, one needs a telescope to look at the planets and stars properly.

Astrophotographers work mostly during the nights, away from dazzling city lights, from lonely spots, sometimes travelling across continents, to get a perfect shot.

When I spoke to them, their excitement on looking at celestial objects through their camera lens rubbed off on me, and I looked at the night sky with awe.

“Photographing planets is not as exciting as hunting in the deeper sky. Through the naked eye, the sky may be just full of twinkling stars. But when you look at it through the high-resolution lens of a camera, it’s a different story,” says Pune-based Kedar Bhat.

Along with astrophotography, he specialises in wildlife and nature photography, as well as website designing. He also conducts photography classes.

He adds, “I still cherish the moment I photographed Comet Hyakutake with its long tail, back in 1996. It was exhilarating and got me hooked to astrophotography.”

Comet Hyakutake with its long-period orbit, passes the Earth once in about 17,000-70,000 years. The accidental discovery of the comet by Yuji Hyakutake, an amateur astronomer from south Japan, was an exciting development for astronomers everywhere.

But the common man had no clue.

Besides shooting celestial objects, many astrophotographers are members of TWAN (The World At Night) style of shooting. It is an international group of photographers who shoot stunning nightscapes of celestial objects against famous monuments. So if you see images of the lunar eclipse behind the Taj Mahal, the Milky Way behind the Himalayas, the Super Moon on the horizon etc., you should know that they are by the TWAN gang.

Delhi-based astrophotographer Nimit Nigam is very proud of his three-month project of tracking the Moon. “The Moon has a cycle of 28 days, but it took me three months to get every phase in a perfect shot. Some days, the weather and the pollution in Delhi doesn’t get you the perfect image. So I had to wait until the next month to capture that phase.”

Each night, for three months, Nimit was perched on his rooftop to map the Moon. An alumnus of Fine Arts from Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi, his photographs have been published in National Geographic Traveller Romania, Etihad Airways, and Lonely Planet India.

In the last few years, especially since Instagram became popular, our smartphone screens pop up with images of the night sky, the moon, or even eclipses. Smartphones are beneficial in capturing these views, which are a novelty for city dwellers living with dazzling street lights and illuminated hoardings, as they rarely see the brilliance of the night sky. But that’s not astrophotography.

“It is not the camera but the photographer that gives the result. Just like it’s not colours that create a painting, but the artist who uses the colours to create the painting, astrophotography is also an art,” explains India’s well-known astrophotographer Nilesh Vayada.

A chartered accountant-turned-astrophotographer based in Mumbai, he is better known as the ‘eclipse chaser’! He chases solar eclipses across the continents with his astrophotography partner from Gurugram, Ajay Talwar.

“Ajay and I have often gone to the Hanle Observatory in Leh, Ladakh, for astrophotography. Some of our pictures from there were published on NASA’s APOD (Astronomy Picture Of the Day) website. It is a proud moment for any astrophotographer,” says Nilesh.

The annual solar eclipse on June 21 followed the penumbral lunar eclipse on July 5 was an exciting time for astrophotographers who were lucky to be on the visible path when the Moon or the Earth was blocking the Sun’s view from the Earth. Indian astrophotographers couldn’t witness the lunar eclipse as it was daytime during the eclipse, but those living in Suratgarh (Rajasthan), Sirsa and Kurukshetra (Haryana), Dehradun, Chamoli and Joshimath (Uttarakhand), enjoyed the annular solar eclipse.

“The coronavirus-lockdown was a major hurdle for us as travelling was restricted,” says Ajay Talwar.

As a member of TWAN, he has been photographing the sky with Nilesh for more than 20 years. The National Geographic also published several pictures of the Milky Way Galaxy over the Himalayan night sky captured by Ajay.

But the eclipse chasers weren’t browbeaten by the lockdown. They had planned to photograph these eclipses in advance. With a slight change in the location from Suratgarh to Sirsa, they not only ‘captured’ this annular solar eclipse but also helped astronomers around the world see them by live-streaming the events.

For Ajay, intra-state travel to Sirsa from Gurugram wasn’t a problem. With due permissions, Nilesh flew from Mumbai to Delhi, and by road to Sirsa.

Ajay recounted that though his family of four and Nilesh could easily be accommodated in one van, they needed three separate vans to transport the equipment needed to record, shoot and live stream the eclipse.

Chasing a solar eclipse is a family trip for Ajay, and while pursuing such celestial phenomena, his family has travelled to remote places that a regular tourist might not think of.

That’s another advantage for sky ‘shooters’. They visit remote places in the Himalayas or interior deserts which are still unpolluted. Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh is a popular site. But it’s difficult to get there with all the equipment to capture the deep sky in its best glory.

Almost every astrophotographer conducts workshops by taking enthusiasts to these remote places. Clear skies are the best times to learn to shoot, while having a great vacation. Although it seems appealing, aspiring astrophotographers need to invest heavily in terms of equipment, time and resources.

They would need to attend workshops to study the Earth’s movements, and learn to direct the camera by placing it at the exact latitude and longitude. Lastly, there is not much income, because either one needs to have an alternate job, or be willing to shoot weddings, coffee table books or pursue other kinds of photography. Without an alternate means of income, it would be difficult for an aspirant to survive on astrophotography alone.

Moreover, with low visibility and narrow periods, like with the NEOWISE Comet, capturing these once-in-a-lifetime events remains challenging.

It’s a passion, “ek junoon”, admits every astrophotographer I spoke to. They tell me that there is rarely any income from this branch of photography but the adrenal rush they get when they look at what their camera has captured, which the naked eye couldn’t see, is worth every effort, and keeps them going.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Two dazzling zebras trot nonchalantly in the fabled kingdom of Maasai Mara, along the Tanzanian border in Kenya. Sarosh Lodhi, a wildlife photographer, is ready with a camera, waiting for the African equines to nuzzle or cuddle. Few co-travellers also follow suit.

Hands still, eyes glued to the zebras and pin-drop silence.

In a fraction of second, he clicks a stunning photo creating an incredible optical illusion.

The two zebras are standing in front of each other, but the image shows one head, four ears with one of them looking straight into the camera. This photo created a stir on social media as it left netizens guessing which head belonged to which zebra.

Closer home, another striking shot went viral in the same week.

Fondly labelled as ‘The Eternal Couple’, Cleopatra, a black panther, along with her mate, ‘Saaya’, a leopard, can be seen staring straight into the camera lens.

This royal picture was taken in the winter of 2019 in Karnataka’s Kabini forest by Mithun H, also a wildlife photographer. Mithun took the mesmerising shot after waiting for six days in the same spot.

Sarosh’s detailed knowledge of animal behaviour helped him capture what others couldn’t. Meanwhile, for Mithun, it was the virtue of perseverance and patience that aided him to produce a once-in-a-lifetime shot.

The Better India spoke to both wildlife photographers to get an insider’s perspective on wildlife photography, a craft that is now becoming a fad, thanks to social media. We also understand the difficulties and challenges of this “expensive” career path and how it helps promote animal conservation.

“In a nutshell, wildlife photography is about putting the subject (animals) above the art (photography). You cannot document the wildlife and their habitats if you lack patience. Remember, here, the subject is not in your control,” says Sarosh, who is an influencer with Nikon.

Midhun adds, “The most crucial aspect is to respect animals. Don’t see it as a long boring wait but instead, focus on the thrill and excitement that it brings.”

What Does It Take To Be A Wildlife Photographer?

Before diving into how to click a magnificent photo, it is important to understand the reason or motive behind entering this field that began as a genre to document wildlife.

This is also because financial investments are high in the beginning, and expecting returns is futile. Plus, the goal of capturing specific animal movements or frames is not easy to accomplish, despite all the effort in getting the right equipment, energy, and time.

Even if one manages to capture their dream shot, getting the right price is not easy. It is a one-person army where the photographer has to market their product.

Mithun was fascinated with the animal kingdom as a child. Since his father was a forest official, he was introduced to wildlife and forest conservation at an early stage, which later influenced his career path.

“The bug of spotting wildlife in the luscious jungles of South India caught on early. I would not leave a single opportunity, always being ready with my binoculars to gaze at the breathtaking views of nature,” he recalls.

He went on to pursue wildlife photography as a hobby until his graduation in Electronic Engineering. “There is only one life, so why not do something that gives you unconditional happiness and satisfaction. I convinced my parents, purchased my camera, and hopped on the safari of a lifetime.”

However, quitting the profession that gives you a stable income is not a hard and fast rule, says Sarosh, who runs his business in Nagpur.

He started wildlife photography in the 90s when this activity was not in the mainstream. A chance visit to Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh with a friend showed the beauty of animals living freely in nature.

“Entering that forest was a different world; there was fresh air, a dash of oxygen and the movement of wild cat species. I captured a tiger with a point-and-shoot camera. The thrill and anticipation of developing the camera roll and witnessing the frame attracted me to this genre of photography. I knew I wanted to experience this adrenaline rush again. My father taught the basics, and that’s how my journey began.”

Both Sarosh and Mithun are self-taught photographers who worked diligently to hone their craft. Their love and passion for exploring forests, capturing the most majestic creatures, and bringing them alive in a photo worked in building their respective careers.

So, how does one kick start their career?

“Just take your camera, enter the jungles and start taking pictures. Learn to be familiar with the forests and the animals on-field. My very first shot of a blue kingfisher sitting on a lotus taught me a lot. Colours, background, the position of the bird and so on, almost 90 per cent of the shot was a mess,” says Mithun.

He warns budding photographers to have the right intention for clicking a picture. Focus on your frame instead of how much money it can churn out, he says.

For camera specifications, Sarosh recommends undergoing photography courses. “Learning the nuances of photography and specifications of gear will tremendously help you in a scenario when the subject is unpredictable.”

Of course, with technological advancements, varied camera and lens options are an added benefit.

Wildlife photography, no doubt, is gradually becoming a mainstream profession with the advent of social media, travelling possibilities and access to high-tech equipment. But every budding wildlife photographer should take note of the responsibility that comes with it.

The duo also vouches for having a support system. They credit their family members who are a constant source of encouragement.

Summing up, both experts believe that a prerequisite for this field is to have enough passion and respect for wildlife.

How to Act On Field

Sarosh and Mithun emphasised giving animals space in their territories. Intruding on their space can severely impact the behaviour of the species and create habitat disturbances.

Another important aspect is to listen to locals and tourist guides who are well-versed with the area and its many species.

More often than not, photographers or tourists park their vehicles to block the animals to get a perfect frame. In 2010, a tigress was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh. It was later revealed how a vehicle had caused serious injuries to the mother of three cubs.

In 2011, the BBC had received a lot of flak for staging the birth of a polar bear using artificial snow.

“If you do not get the picture of the animal you sought to click, don’t be disheartened or adopt unethical practices to suit your needs. Do not be one animal-centric. Come back again the following day and wait at the same spot. The key is to sit and observe. Do not be uncaring with your despicable actions,” says Sarosh, who once waited weeks to capture the picture of a tiger sipping water from a pond.

Some other Dos and Don’ts:

• Before entering a reserve or forest, study the distinct personalities of wild animals. Then, study the animal and identify its most frequented spots. Base your frames on the anticipation of their moves.
• Since the model cannot be given instructions, always keep the camera ready and do not fiddle with the settings.
• Do not wear bright clothes, but opt for ones that camouflage you with the jungle.
• Do not speed vehicles, maintain silence, avoid going in groups and do not crowd the animal. Strictly avoid catcalling, shouting, hooting and playing loud music.
• Take binoculars to spot the animals and always maintain enough distance for safety purposes. Draw a safe imaginary boundary line.
• Carry back all the trash you have generated. Discarding plastic bottles and wrappers can severely hamper the natural habitat.
• Follow the guidelines of the reserve and be ethical about not clicking pictures when animals are feeding or nesting.

The Role of Wildlife Photography In Animal Conservation

Wildlife photography has played a significant role in conservation and, most importantly, spreading awareness. In a world where attention spans grow smaller, a photograph can convey more information quickly.

Take, for instance, a recent internet viral video of elephants struggling to enter the forests due to the man-made barricades in Tamil Nadu. It raised eyebrows about humans encroaching in their space.

Likewise, a well-shot picture or video can educate people regarding the behaviour of different species.

“We may not directly work towards conservation, but learning about various species and their problems can help us foster a dialogue with the forest officials and locals. Our knowledge can help bring policy changes and mitigate conflict. Even putting an image on social media with facts about the animal can do wonders. Posting a picture from a relatively unexplored or unknown place can boost tourism, and in turn, benefit the locals,” points out Mithun.

He has worked extensively with various forest departments and conservationists to highlight the plight of animals and locals, poaching being the biggest.

Five years ago, Sarosh co-founded Conservation Lenses & Wildlife (CLaW), a people’s group to raise awareness about animal welfare and aid locals. He says, “We discuss issues like linear development at the cost of nature or animal habitats and strongly advocate mitigation measures. We also run campaigns on missing or injured animals, drawing the attention of the authorities.”

From helping authorities with numerical data on animals, and auctioning photos to raise money for the welfare of locals, the organisation has been engaged in several activities.

Besides, this profession has also brought changes in their personal lives. “I am very conscious of energy consumption and learnt to adjust with harsh climatic conditions. My tolerance and patience have certainly increased,” says Sarosh.

For Mithun, the biggest takeaway is living in the moment. “Animals have taught me how important life is. They don’t worry about the future or brood about the past. For them, taking care of today is enough.”

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

In a video published earlier today, 15 lyricists from the Hindi film industry demanded that they receive proper credit for their work on music streaming platforms and YouTube channels.

Titled ‘Credit De Do Yaar,’ it shows the lyricists taking a stand after being sidelined for eons.

“Currently, no music streaming apps/platforms have any algorithm of prominently displaying lyrics credits or making a song searchable by the lyrics writer’s name. On official YouTube channels of almost every big music company, hundreds of song videos have wrong or missing credits of lyrics writers. Be it legends like Sahir saab, Shailendra saab, Gulzar saab, Javed Akhtar saab, Anand Bakshi saab, Sameer saab or contemporary writers like Puneet Sharma, Abhiruchi Chand and others — this culture of apathy and erasure runs across generations. Respect is all we desire.”

Speaking to the Hindustan Times, Shailender Singh Sodhi, commonly known as Shelles, the lyricist behind films like Shahid, Manmarziyaan and Jawaani Jaaneman, highlights the fundamental concern in not properly crediting lyricists.

“There’s a rule: if the name is missing, the royalties from the song won’t come to you, be it YouTube or music apps. Unlike abroad, we don’t have the rights. These music apps have a different algorithm. If we are given our credits, we will start getting the royalty. But what about the royalties of the past? We don’t do any gigs or concerts like singers, who get paid Rs 40 lakhs sometimes. We just get paid peanuts once, and there are negotiations, and nothing after that. Then we have to resort to doing other things like dialogue and script writing to earn extra moolah,” says Shailender.

Besides their names not appearing on streaming platforms, there are other ways in which lyricists don’t receive their due credit. Some have their work plagiarised, while some songs are wrongly credited.

1) Genda Phool: Rapper Badshah fell into hot water earlier this year for the song Genda Phool for not crediting Ratan Kahar, an 85-year-old Birbhum-based folk artist, who originally wrote the hook “Boro Loker beti lo/lomba lomba chul/ emon chul e lagiye debo laal genda phool (Daughter of a rich man/ long, long hair/ I shall adorn such hair with a red marigold).”

After getting panned on social media, Badshah spoke to Kahar, paid him Rs 5 lakh and has offered to work on a song with him once the pandemic subsides.

2) O Saathi, Baaghi 2: In the song, there is a couplet, “Betaabiyaan Samet Ke Saare Jahaan Ki / Jab Kuchh Naa Ban Sakaa To Mera Dil Banaa Diya”, which was either written by poets Najmi Naginvi or Jigar Moradabadi. Credit for these lyrics on the official T Series YouTube channel, however, is given to a certain Arko with no mention of the poets.

3) Ek Chatur Naar: This iconic song from the 1968 cult-classic Padosan was originally sung not by Manna Dey and Kishore Kumar, but his brother Ashok Kumar in the 1941 film Jhoola. Originally written by Kavi Pradeep, the lyrics for the more popular version of the song, however, was solely credited to lyricist Rajendra Krishan.

4) Dilbar, Satyamev Jayate: On the T Series YouTube channel, the credit for the lyrics of one of last year’s biggest hits was wholly given to Shabbir Ahmed when originally the song was written by Sameer Anjaan.

5) Don’t Be Shy, Bala: On the Sony Music India YouTube page for the song ‘Don’t be Shy’ in the 2019 film Bala, the credit for the music was given to Sachin-Jigar, while Badshah and Mellow D were credited for the lyrics. However, on both counts, they failed to credit the original composer and songwriter Baljit Singh Padam, better known by his stage name Dr. Zeus, who delivered ‘Don’t be Shy’ performed by the girl group Rouge and the Punjabi smash hit ‘Kangna.’

Meanwhile, a YouTuber has compiled a list of 50 songs on the streaming platform, where official channels of music studios haven’t credited the lyricists for their songs. On streaming platforms like Spotify, the list goes into the hundreds. None of these songs would be what they are without the lyrics and therefore lyricists must be credited for their words.

Varun Grover, the lyricist credited with films like Gangs of Wasseypur and Udta Punjab, showed how to credit lyricists the right way. Writing a song based on legendary Hindi poet Dushyant Kumar’s ‘Tu Kisi Rail Si Guzarti Hai’ for the film Masaan, Varun reached out to both the late poet’s descendants and publishers and sought their permission to use just two lines from the poem.

If you visit the official Zee Music Company channel on YouTube, where the song is posted, you will find that Dushyant Kumar has been credited.

It’s not very hard to credit the original writers. Unfortunately, some don’t make the effort, but that needs to change now.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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OAs India celebrates the National Handloom Day on August 7 2020, this will be the first time it does so without the All India Handloom Board.

The Union Ministry of Textile released two separate notifications on July 27 and August 3 to announce the abolition of the All India Handicraft Board and All India Handloom Board (AIHB). According to the statement, the decision has been taken in consonance with the Government of India’s vision of ‘Minimum Government and Maximum Governance’.

However, experts feel that the board which comprises official members from the central and state governments, and non-official members from the handloom industry, played a vital role in safeguarding the interest of weavers, and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Laila Tyabji, the founder of Delhi-based NGO Dastkar, took to social media to express her concern over the dissolution of the board.

In her post, she mentions that the AIHB remained the one official forum, where the voices and views of weavers and craftspeople could be heard directly. She says that was the one place where representatives of the sector were present in considerable numbers and were empowered to advise the government in policy-making, and sectoral spending.

What did the All India Handloom Board do?

The All India Handloom Board was set up in 1992, to advise the Government in the formulation of overall development programs in the handloom sector. It was also responsible for advising the Government on how to make handlooms an effective instrument for reducing unemployment and underemployment, and how to achieve higher living standards for weavers.

Umang Sridhar, the founder of Bhopal-based social enterprise, KhaDigi, that works with several weavers and artisans in Madhya Pradesh, says that the state-level representatives of AIHB were actively involved in organising melas, fairs, and exhibitions to showcase and market their work.

The Board also formulated the development and welfare schemes of handloom weavers from time to time.

Some of the welfare schemes introduced by the AIHB include:

1.The Handloom Weavers Comprehensive Welfare Scheme

Launched in 2018, all weavers and workers between the ages of 18 – 50 were covered under the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY). As part of the same scheme, a maximum of two children of the weavers would be given an annual scholarship for their education.

According to a study conducted between 2008-09, the Govt. of India spent an amount of Rs.324.44 crore for the development of the handloom sector. This expenditure has increased to Rs.740.72 crore in 2012-13, after it declined to Rs.577.25 crore in 2013-14.

2. National Handloom Development Programme (NHDP)

This scheme focussed on the education of handloom weavers and their children. Ministry of Textiles provides reimbursement of 75% of the fee towards admission to the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)courses for SC, ST, BPL, and Women learners belonging to handloom weavers’ families.

A study conducted in 2015, among 146 weavers in Madhya Pradesh shows that 9/10th of the population was found to be benefiting from training programs in weaving, dyeing and design were able to increase their annual earnings by 5% to 15%.

3. Handloom Marketing Assistance

One of the components of the NHDP, this aims to provide a marketing platform to the handloom agencies and weavers to sell their products directly to the consumers. Financial assistance is provided to the eligible handloom agencies for organising marketing events in domestic as well as overseas markets.

4. Weaver MUDRA Scheme:

Under the Weavers’ Mudra Scheme, credit at a concessional interest rate of 6% is provided to the handloom weavers. Margin money assistance to a maximum of Rs.10,000 per weaver and credit guarantee for 3 years is also provided. The MUDRA portal has been developed in association with Punjab National Bank to cut down delay in disbursement of funds for margin money.

Under this scheme, the total number of cards issued during the year 2015-2016 was at 5.17 lakh, and an amount of Rs 1476.96 crore. The same study shows that Rs.1391.25 cr was withdrawn by micro and small business.

5. Yarn Supply Scheme –

Under this scheme Yarn warehouses were set up in handloom dense areas, and yarn was provided to weavers at a 10% subsidy. In 2015, the same study conducted among 146 weavers in Madhya Pradesh showed that 98% were happy with the scheme as they got all kinds of yarn at mill gate price.

For the Future

Umang says that the decision taken by the government came as a surprise to everyone and that most artisans are still unaware of it.

“The role of the board has been crucial in offering subsidies, grants, and in setting up showrooms in several areas which generated sales, marketing, and training opportunities. The board was also actively involved in organising melas, fairs, and exhibitions to uplift the artisans. Now that the board is not there, there is no clarity as to what would happen to the state-level associations, and who will organise these events in the future. There are talks that a central body may be set up to regulate handlooms and handicrafts, but that is not certain.”

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

There was a time when almost every woman’s wardrobe across Southern India would hoard a stack of Telia Rumal sarees or kerchiefs. Sadly, the heritage ‘Telia Rumal’ weaving pattern with its intricate floral motifs, enclosed by geometric borders and patterns is slowly disappearing from the handloom scene of India.

The story of this fabric which boasts of the coveted Geographical Indication tag dates back to over a hundred years ago to a time before the British import of cheaper power loom products took over the textile industry by storm. Today, the Telia Rumal survives in pockets and parcels of Andhra Pradesh, mostly restricted to a handful of weavers’ communities, who have carried forth the tradition through generations. 

The ‘well-oiled’ fabric adored by fishermen and Arabian merchants alike

In the early 19th century, this double Ikat weave dominated the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh, gaining prominence under the expert craftsmanship of the weavers of Chirala — a coastal region in the present Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh. Gradually, the handloom technique gained popularity which the weavers in Nalgonda district soon adopted. 

Being situated on the coastline, Chirala’s access to the sea enabled maritime trade with Africa and the Middle-East. Soon, Telia Rumal earned immense popularity in the Middle-Eastern market for its unique texture, patterns and longevity. 

There is an intriguing reason behind the terminology of this weaving pattern. The word ‘Telia’ is derived from Til (sesame) since the yarn for the textile is ideally treated with castor ash, sesame oil along with sheep dung at times for longer colour retention. The entire method of processing the yarn takes nearly 21 days. Furthermore, the well-oiled threads helped retain moisture and protected the skin from dryness when worn in the extreme desert climate of the Arabian lands. While the generous use of oil makes the fabric soft, it also renders a distinct smell to the same. 

The term ‘Rumal’ refers to a handkerchief or its slightly larger counterpart — a kerchief or scarf. Where the Arabian women wore this fabric as headgear, the men in the Middle-Eastern countries fashioned keffiyehs or turbans from the material. 

In India, the Nizams and wealthy Zamindars of Telangana favoured the Telia Rumal for turbans as a symbol of their power. 

The fishermen in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra adopted the same as a comfortable loincloth (lungi) or shoulder cloths — one of the reasons being that the intricate weaving pattern prevented salty seawater from seeping through. Rumour has it that the oily aroma of the fabric also helped attract fish, which is why the fishermen preferred it as their ‘lucky’ gear.

To the uninitiated eye, the colours on a Telia Rumal fabric will appear to be plain black, red and white. However, the hues of red range from crimson to cinnabar, brown and maroon red, coupled with white on black. The extract of the fruits of Aal or Indian mulberry (Morinda tinctoria) lend it the characteristic red colour. 

Revival Efforts by Padma Shri Gajam Govardhan

One might spot the Telia Rumal’s similarity with the more popular Pochampally Ikat or Nalgonda Ikat. However, weavers believe that the Telia Rumal is far superior to these fabrics — in texture, structural integrity as well as the hard work that goes into it. In the present market, the Telia Rumal is being preserved and revived by only a handful of handloom enthusiasts. 

Padma Shri awardee weaver Gajam Govardhan takes precedence among them. It was Govardhan who helped secure the prestigious Geographical Indication tag for the fabric recently. 

“In 1975 I visited Chirala while working for the Ministry of Textiles and then I decided to revive the craft,” Govardhan had shared in an interview with The Hindu, adding that the craft was an integral part of his family heirloom. Through international exhibitions and festivals, he helped promote the dying handloom style on a global scale, creating a new market demand for the same. 

When Govardhan started his campaign for the revival of Telia Rumal, hardly 20 families were involved in weaving the same. He trained over 800 other artisans who helped produce the fabric in bulk. With an expanding market, the Telia Rumal was thus no longer restricted to being a scarf or a saree at most. Instead, the pattern started appearing on dress materials, dupattas, drapes etc. Initially, geometric and floral patterns dominated the Telia Rumal domain. At the same time, the later craftsmen branched out to a more diverse platter — adapting animals, birds, wildlife and even modern-day objects like clocks or aeroplanes on their weaving canvas. 

“Weavers prefer not to weave this anymore”

“The revival of the Telia Rumal faced another setback in the early 1990s with the advent of the power loom,” says Madhurima Bhattacharya, a graduate student of textile designing at NIFT-Bengaluru. 

The consequent reduction of yarn subsidies following the market liberalisation also hampered its production. The intricate warp and weft of the double-weave Ikat, followed by the tie-dye process of colouring, was impossible to be replicated by the power loom and only had to be accomplished by expert handloom weavers. 

“A single piece of Telia Rumal takes around two months to be completed. The fragile economic condition of the original weavers does not permit them to spend such elaborate time on a single piece of cloth. Hence they prefer not to weave the same anymore,” adds Madhurima. “Though there are a few designers who are now showcasing the Telia Rumal in their collections, the original form is long lost, and the craft has been largely contemporised,” she adds.

This World Handloom Day, it is high time we stand by our traditional textiles and celebrate the beautiful craftsmanship of the incredibly talented artisans of our country. 

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

All Image Credits: Dastkari Haat Samiti/Google Arts and Culture

Most mornings at home begin with me sharing a cup of piping-hot tea with my mother as she cooks up a storm in the kitchen. It is her safe space, and has seen several conversations and debates about everything under the sun, that are kept going with an endless supply of biscuits or other homemade snacks and sweets.

A second school of sorts, the kitchen was also where I learnt some of the most important lessons of life and one of them was that the action of eating is meant to be more than just an act, but an experience.

Everytime she would cook something special, she would insist upon some patience. While I would want to gobble it all up, she would ask me to pause, and try eating with my senses in the order of sight, smell, touch, sound and taste.

And the first sense, or sight in this regard would hold considerable significance. Because, way before the trend of instagrammable food began, she was a true believer of the power of sight in the action of eating.

And she, as usual, knew best. There are a few special traditional Indian delicacies that blur the lines between food and art, and are truly too beautiful to eat. Here are some of them:

1. Nakshi Pitha

An intricately carved rice cake, this traditional dessert originated in the rural parts of undivided Bengal and mimics floral motifs that are abound in artistic expressions like alpana (rangoli) or embroidered quilts also known as kantha.

The name ‘nakshi’ comes from nakshi kantha, a rural artform of embroidering fabric used both for wearables as well as decor.

This delicacy is made from a dough of rice flour that is rolled out and strenuously carved into designs of creepers, flowers and plants, using needles, hairpins, date thorns, twigs etc. One can either deep fry the rice cakes and dip in sugar syrup, or can even let them dry and store for later use.

From weddings, harvest festivals to Bengali New Year celebrations, Nakshi Pitha is a constant culinary reminder of Bengal’s artistic past that was once heavily dominated by women’s folk art.

2. Imarti or Jangiri

Jalebi’s sophisticated cousin, Imarti or Amriti or Jangiri is extremely popular all across India, not just for its sugary brilliance but also the visual appeal.

Made by deep-frying in desi ghee or oil, this sweet is made from a thick liquid batter of black gram flour that is piped into thin circular flower-like motifs through a stitched cloth. Once fried it is then dipped in sugar syrup and left to expand.

In comparison to humble jalebi, imarti not only wins extra points for sweetness, but is also known for its complicated geometric patterns that display its maker’s artistic prowess.

3. Goyna or Gohona Bori

Made of lentil or dal mixed with poppy seeds and spices, this dry dumpling is known for its ornamental shapes that come in a bouquet of variety. The name itself, goyna or gohona means jewels or ornaments in Bengali.

Originated in rural parts of Purba (East) Medinipur, these beautiful dumplings are steeped in history and art.

One of the most interesting stories associated with this ornate version of bori, is its connection to the Tagore family. In 1930, a student of Shantiniketan, Seba Maiti presented Rabindranath Tagore gohona bori freshly made by his mother Hirnmayi Debi and grandmother, Sheratakumari Debi.

Taken aback by the artistic brilliance of the edibles, he wrote a letter seeking permission to preserve photographs of these boris at the Art Building of Shantiniketan. In fact, Abanindranath Tagore, his nephew and a prominent artist at the time, felt that Gohona Bori was worthy of being called art, and that baking it or eating it might be an act of destruction!

4. Suryakala and Chandrakala

Although both desserts originate in Bihar, they are now synonymous with Diwali and Holi celebrations across India.

They are made from a flour dough with a stuffing of coconut mixed with dry fruits, khoya, semolina, cardamom and sugar. Much like Nakshi Pitha, the stuffed dumplings are deep fried in oil or ghee until golden and then let to rest and expand in a vessel full of sugar syrup.

After a few minutes of rest, the glazed golden dumplings are separated from the syrup, dried and served as snacks.

5. Kodma Batasa or Panchadara Chilakalu

On the eve of Poila Baishakh (Bengali New Year), one can see the local kirana or grocery stores selling heaps of sugary candies shaped like swans, parrots, hens, horses, temples etc, in pinks, whites and yellows. They called this traditional sugar candy, Kodma Batasa.

A similar image surfaces in South India during Makar Sankranti, when the same is sold but is known by the name Sakkare Acchu or Panchdara Chilakalu. In North India, it is also known as Khilona Batasa.

Whatever the name, these tiny sweet figurines come in various shapes and sizes and are made using wooden moulds. Some keep it simple with a sugar candy mixture, others add more complexity with dried coconut, jaggery and dal, making it a sweet tooth foodie’s dream come true.

Most of these delicacies are on the sweeter side and over the years have become an integral part of festive cuisine in India. Be it for festive gatherings or for decorating wedding gifts, also known as totto or shagun, these artistic foods have continued to hold the threads of culture, art and society, in a truly delicious knot.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

Featured image: Niaz Tamanna Kanta/Facebook