Starry tale of Mangalagiri sari

Amaravati: Mangalagiri cotton sari weavers seem to be in for some good time. The demand for these saries has increased tremendously nowadays, courtesy the film industry. Tollywood saucy seductress Shruti Haasan is all set wear a Mangalagiri cotton sari in her next movie, the Malayalam remake of Premam. A sari supplier to the movie has purchased a sari worth Rs 3 lakh for the purpose.

• Shruti to don it in Premam remake
• 3,000 meters of cloth ordered for Bahubali-2
• Hot favourite of Mamata Banerjee

The master weavers have specially woven the cotton sari for the actress. She will be seen in minimal makeup and her saris will be a treat. Specially made saries will be costumes for Shruti, both in scenes and songs. They are 100 percent cotton saries with silk-like smooth finish, say the weavers.

Mangalagiri saries GI identification body chairman Venigalla Sankara Rao said, “The saries have two borders with different middle colour. This sari is attractive. Quality of sari is very good. We have supplied 300 such saris.”

For Bahubali-2, Costumes Krishna purchased 3,000 meters of single colour Mangalagiri cotton cloth at a cost of Rs 12-lakh. It will be used for uniforms to soldiers and for background in the film. For hero and heroine, Proddatur raw silk costumes are used. The film house has already paid Rs 12 lakh to the Mangalagiri cloth merchants.

Further in Magadheera movie, Mangalagiri cotton cloth was used as uniform for soldiers. In Bhamane Satyabhamane film, actor Kamal Hasan, who played an elderly woman, wore Mangalagiri cotton sarees. For Rajanna film , the hero wore Mangalagiri cotton dhotis.

A trader in Mangalagiri has been supplying sarees to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee regularly. The trader, A Ravidra, says “I have been supplying Mangalagiri cotton sarees to Mamata Banerjee for the last two years. She gives order for 100 to 150 sarees at a time. As per her order, we will weave the sarees and supply.” Cost of each saree is between Rs 800 and Rs1200.

Traders from Bombay, Delhi and other metros come to Mangalagiri and purchase cotton sarees and dress material for chunnis. Dress material in different designs is also available in Mangalagiri cotton. They sell on an average sarees worth Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.2crore. Some of the traders will export cotton sarees to the US, UK and other countries.

After they got the GI identification, the demand for Mangalagiri sarees has increased a lot. Heavy gold thread or zari borders, traditional Nizam designs, and simple mono-striped or multi-colour striped pallus adorn the fabric.