Tasrika: Showcasing life of weavers

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. Coming from humble beginnings and having risen above the hardships associated with it I always aspired to give back to the community which gave me my identity and a lot more that I am grateful for today. So after lot of retrospection I decided what better time to do so than this where all of us are battling the greatest challenges of a pandemic we might see in our life time.

I couldn't even begin to imagine the plight of our weavers in these testing times. So, after a lot of thought it occurred to me that the nicest thing I could do for them at this point in time was to make them feel revered by giving them a fruit of their labour.

I have been working closely with the Narayanpet cluster weavers and over the years I forged a special bond with them so I decided to collaborate with weavers from Narayanpet and do something special for them. In my numerous interactions with them I remember all those women pouring their heart out that they have never worn a saree weaved by them as they could never afford it.

What started off as a happiness project began to take a more serious turn of events when I decided to visit them post the pandemic and what I saw on ground was a very sad reality. I quickly realised that just one gesture is not enough to honour these special individuals and i intended to make a more meaningful impact in their lives.

Growing up in Hindupur, a small town which is close to the Lepakshi Temple famous for its culture and architecture of the Vijayanagar empire , the mural paintings and inscriptions of temple always inspired me and I intended to preserve these indigenous art forms and bring them into textiles .

The fusion of this idea with my close association with Narayanpet weavers was the birth of Tasrika . I was fortunate to meet some like-minded people on this journey. Raghu Maadati who is an ace photographer, cinematographer , a brilliant story teller and a good friend was immediately thrilled to be on board when I shared my ideas with him and we immediately got to work .

We first identified 10 Narayanpet weavers and procured Narayanpet sarees from them which were then digitally printed with the Lepakshi heritage art designs created by Label Hemanthsiree . We gifted these sarees to them and conceptualised a photo shoot with a temple theme and had these weavers wearing their own weaved custom-made label Hemanthsiree sarees model for us.

A day of bonding created some magic and gave women an outlet to share their problems, thoughts, feelings, and triumphs. The joy on their faces is what we will cherish for a long time and makes this journey and effort worth it . The photographs just don't document the events but carry a residue of the mood transcending through a camera lens . We also decided to shoot a documentary named 'Tasrika' ( Sanskrit name for "weaving") featuring a slice of life of these weavers, their craft and the devastating impact of Covid-19 on the handloom sector, the hardships faced during the pandemic and the road to recovery . We intend to showcase this documentary and photo exhibition on various platforms and make the weaver's voices heard and hope to give them a new lease of life .