Young men and women donning garments splashed with dye were seen on the streets of Chennai with a mischievous grin on their faces celebrating Holi, a festival largely celebrated in the northern part of India, with fun and fervour.

As much fun as it is to play with colours, vendors who sell Holi supplies aren’t the least bit in the festival mood as many shops are witnessing a huge dip in sales this year, an all-time low since 2011.

Sharp fall Kalaiselvi H, who runs Selvaraj Store in T Nagar, said though the sale of Holi powder has been on the decline, this year, sales have been the worst. “Usually, on the day of Holi, we sell close to 150 kg of powder in the morning. But, this year, we were hardly able to sell 50 kg,” she said.

With the festival falling during exam time, and the ongoing cricket T20 matches, sales suffered, she added. Another vendor Kamachi S said, “After the floods, people, even our regular customers, who used to buy 50-100 kg of Holi powder, made only token purchases.”

A store manager at one of the organic stores in Chennai said, compared with 2015, sales have gone down as people source directly from North India or buy from local stores as organic colour powders are expensive. Organic Holi powder costs about ₹150 per kg, while regular ones cost ₹60-80.

Madhu Sudhan, owner of Dhanyam Organic Store, said the shop did not see any change in the sale of organic powders and so far has sold 510 kg. One of the employees of the store said, with people becoming health conscious, sales are growing, especially among couples with young kids.

Bigger crowd In one of the events organised for the North Indian population in Chennai, at the YMCA Grounds in Royapettah, the number of participants have been increasing. According to one of the organisers, the crowd has doubled this year with participation of around 2,000 people.

“Last time, it was around 1,000,” he said. But, rather than buying the supplies here, they source it in bulk from Uttar Pradesh.

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