Pop art has been riding the fast lane for some time now. Each passing day this art stream is getting more and more popular. What used to be desi and uncool yesterday is uber cool today.The modern take on the Indianness is chic and stylish. Perspectives have changed. People are happy to bring back the Indian street flavour into their everyday lives through the route of home décor, garments and accessories. Today brand “India” is larger than life and everyone wants to own a piece of this India, even if it is in a very small way.

At this juncture, our inexpensive products are surging to the forefront instantly. There is now a huge demand for little bric-a-bracs such as kitsch note books, keychains, badges, coasters, fashionable bags and shoes and even furniture and products of home decor such as cushions, trays and curtains and so on, which are direct translations of our colourful streets.

We have already, for long, seen graphic artists and designers romancing the autorickshaw or three-wheelers. Today, we have a wider range of street imagery being translated onto various fashion and lifestyle arena. It is all about creating something that makes you want to own a part of India.

Scenes from congested streets and little nooks and corners of a chaotic busy bustling day double up as meaty imagery for such art. The jungle of archaic telephone wiring atop a cobweb-laden dusty pillar and small shops displaying colourful inexpensive plastic products tucked away somewhere in the lanes of Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi Paharganj add to the data bank of our graphic designers. Or old dilapidated buildings and film posters pasted on these chipped walls. All these tell a crazy, colourful story about our ‘Imperfect India’, which is so perfect!

Bollywood is the biggest kitsch flavour that “brand India” has in its big bag of enticing goodies. Though explored and re-explored to the fullest, amazingly there is still room for more exploration and reinvention. This season, when I started working on my new collection around Bollywood, I was struck by the scarcity of a serious brand that can bring out the madness of this colourful world of filmy kitsch, and there began my saga with rosy-cheeked actors popping out of film hoardings of yesteryears finding a comfortable spot on a wide range of products — which no one needs to aspire to possess.

The whole idea of kitsch Indian art should be affordability and the “within reach” factor that promotes “brand India” through the masses. More than enticing the foreigners, our idea should be to have Indian buyers inculcate the feeling of wanting to possess that little part of India that has been replaced by westernisation.

we find it fascinating how people look for someone to change their perspectives. Today, people are waiting for someone to come by and help them see Indianness in a new light. Riding the tide of the same pulse, several brands have cropped up with their interpretations of this same Indianness. It is indeed a pleasure to know that our culture and our old dusty streets still fascinate creative minds.