Nitya Singh Garha, Founder, Manikarnika, recently joined NewsX for an exclusive interview as part of NewsX Influencer A-List. As part of the interview, the entrepreneur spoke in detail about her brand Manikarnika, the objective behind it, what sets the brand apart from others and much more. Read excerpts:
Talking about the journey of the brand so far and the objective behind it, Nitya said, “Actually, being married this side of the world and living in Guna, especially. Being a housewife, you don’t have much to do. I am having a very natural artistic streak, since my school days. I used to keep designing on and off and on but then later I thought let me give it a try. One day, my husband took me shopping to chanderi and we were buying something for ourselves. I saw this beautiful collection and I met some weavers. When I was looking at it, it just struck me that I should do something for them. I picked up the things and I just started Manikarnika. It just came to my mind.”
“Everything was just really spontaneous. It was nothing like I had very big plans or anything. I said let’s see how it goes off. I had the first exhibition with Royal Fables. Anshu is very kind and very gracious to invite me with the royal fables she gave me the platform. The first exhibition was at Baroda, and then I had two-three exhibitions of my own. It did very well but then I wanted to do something very different, which was not available. I wanted to show my side with creativity and my contribution towards chanderi,” she added.
On giving her own twist to the chanderi sarees, Nitya expressed, “The first time when I had it, it was just all handwoven stuff. However, you get handwoven stuff everywhere you go. I just want it to be a little different. More than being competitive or anything, I wanted to discover my own self, my own ability towards creating. I found a bunch of artists, who were willing to work with me. It takes a very very long time. It just struck me that I should do handpainted sarees that would be something very different and women feel it is very suave and chique. I found these two-three bunch of youngsters and great artists, who were willing to work with me and with my palette. It is very difficult when you have to read somebody’s mind and put it onto the canvas. This was in the sarees. It takes a very long time to make and finish one in a month. You can only make 5 pieces because it is a whole thing. These are all watercolours. I thought let’s see how it goes because there’s a first time going to showcase these. There are ducks, there are flamingos, there are lotuses. It’s very English. The art is very very English. It is not very Indian.”