The Hindu Business Line : Weaving an ethnic spell

Ghanshyam Sarode is a textile designer with a difference. He produces reams of material in mind-blowing patterns on handloom weaves and allows his creations to be sold by boutiques with their tag.

He is an entrepreneur more by inspiration than by any commercial considerations. It is this quality that sets Ghanshyam Sarode apart from the rest of his tribe. A textile designer with a difference, he produces reams of material in mind-blowing patterns on handloom weaves and allows his creations to be sold by boutiques with their tag! "It does hurt my creative instincts as each designer sari is like my baby. It is born after months of reckoning and hard labour and is later picked up by a market-savvy boutique and branded as its own. But marketing is not my cup of tea. It eats into my creativity if done on a large scale which is again mandatory if my rare collections (of saris) are to be lifted in a lot," says Sarode.

His forte is the revival of the antique Dhaka weaving to its excellence and eminence, as the craft existed 70 years ago. "This weave is known as Jaamdhani. The Tangail saris that are being palmed off as Jaamdhani these days do not have the strong thread weave as the original ones that the Bengal royal families sported," he says. But his creations use fine thread closely woven, true to the time-honoured technique of Jaamdhani. "It is time-consuming and elaborate. But the end product is worth the sweat," says Sarode.

He has an expanse comprising the best of bests. A Pythani (also a royal family weave) sari in soft silk catches the eye as does a Paatan Patola and an ikkat when it spills out of Sarode's wardrobe. Whether it is a Jaamdhani or a Dhaka weave, no two saris have the same pattern. The designs themselves are recreated from the antique paintings of Ajanta, the royal brocades of the Nawabs of Bengal, Mughal architecture and the ancient temple frescos of the south. And the colour combinations are fabulous, to say the least.

A chartered accountant by profession, Sarode, it seems, was destined to become a textile designer and manufacturer. The career switch was so easily made that, looking back, Sarode himself is surprised. "It's unimaginable how a Panthani product show made such an impression on my mind that I decided to throw up everything else and devote all my time and attention to the weaving business." Much to the chagrin of his elders, Sarode set up shop with five looms, in Aurangabad. "Gifted weavers were as few then as they are now, but I was fortunate to have the services of some of them," he says.

This was during the early 1990s. Soon, business flourished and his creations were picked up by textile industries. But Sarode was not content. "I wanted to be the singular Jaamdhani weaver manufacturer and also use Egyptian cotton yarn to get the Dhaka texture. My patterns are intricate and identical and, till today, they remain the same," he says.

All advertising is by word-of-mouth for the store whose monthly turnover is Rs 16 lakh. Most of the profits, Sarode says, go back into the four weaving units located at Nellore, Rajamundry (coastal Andhra Pradesh), Kurnool and Nashik (Maharashtra).

Is there a large fan following for designer saris? Says Sarode, "These saris appeal to and are appreciated only by a small percentage of buyers. As a result there is a lot of surplus pile-up."

His creations are often picked up by the Ambanis at stores, which they frequently shop.

No matter how creative and original an artist, designers like Sarode have to be content with being able to push their masterpieces through the competitive market at the cost of their individuality as designers and put up with a booming pirated business. As long as patenting doesn't become a (mandatory) reality, many a master artisan is bound to an incognito existence.

Not that anonymity deters Sarode from pursuing his heart's desire. He is relentlessly into indigenous R&D. His dream is to open a state-of-the-art handloom textile park where the best material would flow from looms hitherto unknown to the natives. Armed with a blue print and financial estimates that run into the next 10 years, he has already made a beginning along with 40 small handloom makers by acquiring 80 acres of land at Kothoor near Hyderabad. The Central Government is contributing Rs 20 crore towards infrastructure.

With the easing of import norms on textile machinery, Sarode intends to purchase sophisticated, albeit second-hand, cotton processing machines from Germany and the US since these countries have long given up weaving. The estimated cost may be around Rs 100 crore in the first phase to set up 500 looms, an amount which he plans to mobilise by way of venture capital or equity. Initially, the focus will be on shirt material with an eye on the foreign market.

The closure of cotton spinning units in major Western countries and Europe is a big gain for the developing nations of the Asian subcontinent. This, plus cheap labour when compared to the West, will make our handlooms very viable to a foreign buyer. "By 2005, there will be only four countries in handloom textiles — India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and China. And Andhra Pradesh has set a $5 billion export target for textiles by 2010. Our textile park can generate Rs 800 crore worth of export material. There's a lot of scope for further expansion in line with demand," says Sarode.

US-based Walmart and Target have already opened offices in Bangalore for outsourcing apparels, furnishings and textiles. The optimist in Sarode sees a spate of orders for the park as South India's three major States are the strongest on the cotton front.

Apart from his industrious investments, Sarode is also devoted to preserving and helping talented weavers. His NGO, Bhunkar Raj, brings the most talented weavers, across the length and breadth of Andhra Pradesh, under one umbrella.

The NGO will take orders on behalf of the weavers and will be able to produce even for the smallest order for any country. Already, unique ikats in the Indonesian weave and hand-made kalamkaris on dupattas and saris are flowing out of Bhunkar Raj. Sarode is determined to save a gifted and dying tribe from annihilation and draw the attention of the world textile market to the exclusive, ethereal handloom weaving of Andhra Pradesh.

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