Tamaala – the evergreen tree supporting all art forms – currently partners 150 artists & artisans from over 40 regions of India. We invited Vinay Prashant, CO-founder of Tamaala, for an interview with Most Popular Stories to know more about his entrepreneurial journey.
- Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey entrepreneur?
I am Vinay Prashant, co-founder of Tamaala. My ancestral roots are Bangalorean, but I was born in Jamshedpur and schooled in Chennai. My schooling has had a profound impact on what I do today. I studied in The School KFI, one of the schools founded by Jiddu Krishnamurthi. My numerous interactions with artisans and years growing up in a verdant campus have shaped my ideas of supporting and working with rural and tribal artists & artisans ).
I can speak Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi and understands Malayalam. I have done my graduation in Physics from the University of Madras and a post-graduation in Management from National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli.
I always say that I am a social art evangelist. I take inspiration from my great grand uncle Sir M Visweswaraya who devoted his life to helping others, starting his career by building several irrigation canals and dams across India to help farmers. I also take inspiration from my own father who runs a free counseling center in Mysore and delivers talks on a unique model of happiness.
The enterprise Tamaala was founded by my wife, Suvarna Kamakshi ( a Master’s in English Literature from Delhi University), she schooled in Kolkata and New Delhi and loves learning languages.she’s fluent in Telugu(mother tongue), Bengali, French, Hindi, Tamil, and Kannada. Her formative years were shaped through philosophical, theological and spiritual discussion at home- her father Late Dr. I Panduranga Rao was Director (Languages), UPSC and later on headed Bharatiya Jnanpith and authored around 60 books.
She worked for a few years in Jet Airways since she loved airplanes. But she finally found her passion about a decade back when her brush touched the canvas. Ironic that she had given up her Delhi College of Art seat to pursue Literature and was back to her true calling, though fairly quickly. She wears two hats – one of an artist and the other of the curator.
As an artist, she began her career in Ahmedabad with her first show in the M F Hussain Gallery- Amdavad ni Gufa. She has 4 solo shows and 15 group shows across the country to her credit, her works are with collectors in India & abroad. Her works reflect her constant churning of questions still unanswered, of truths learned and of the wonders of existence. Her preferred medium is oil on canvas.
As a curator, she has chosen to work with artists and artisans, bring joy to people’s lives through rural innovation in this space and create smiles everywhere. She says the happiness one gets in touching a talented artisan’s life is truly worth it.
- Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
I worked in the corporate industry for about 18 years before choosing to pursue a social entrepreneurial journey. Retail ( Shoppers Stop ), Telecom ( Tata Teleservices & Reliance ), and Media ( Radio Mirchi and Amagi ) in profit center head positions.
Then I married Suvarna in 1999 and we have lived a semi-nomadic life traversing 11 cities in these years – well since mostly it was my job that took us there. We love unplanned road trips with our two adorable daughters and most of the tribal and rural art forms that we work with currently are discoveries made on such trips.
- What was the vision behind it?
The condition of the traditional Indian artisan is getting worse day-by-day in this commercial and exploitative world. Their art forms remain unsupported and unappreciated. Their progeny fears staying back and learning their family business due to lack of income from it, and so seek employment in big cities – however, they come to the city as migrant labor doing menial jobs and the innate art in their hands handed down over generations is probably lost forever.
We at Tamaala have set out to change this unfortunate but very real state of the rural artisans by giving them a platform where their art is appreciated and is exposed to those unaware of the exquisite folk art of India.
- Describe the services that you offer to your customers and in what way are they unique?
We, at Tamaala, have a range of craft & art creations that cater to the needs of the home & family. We have a great collection of games & toys which can make the pleasure of discovering Indian traditional games and make it fun for the entire family. DIY art kits for those who want to discover Indian tribal & rural art forms. We have copper bells made by the Luhars in Kutch, we have embossed wooden works by artisans in Jodhpur, we have the best of tribal art by Gond artists from the forests of Dindori, MP.
We also have unique creations by craftspeople from Channapatana in both decor & toys. We work with award-winning inlay artists from Mysore and Vishwakarmis who are miniature model makers. We have a huge collection of original art oils, acrylics, and watercolors by rural artists & contemporary artists.
We also have design innovations that we promote like the terracotta a mobile amplifier that creates employment for 3 craft clusters – wood crafters in Channapatna, potters in Ramanagara and the Chittara artists who embellish it with rural motifs.
We also bring artisans to both retail & corporate events. That can become a great talking point for the event itself and learning the art & craft from a rural/ tribal craftsperson can make the event memorable.
- What difficulties which you have faced or you are facing?
The challenges are several – what inspires us is the support we get from patrons who understand these struggles – creating awareness for the handmade is a challenge since the comparison is many a time with machine-made equivalents – it’s also helping us that the understanding that there is beauty in minor imperfections is gradually coming in.
The other challenge is competing with machine-made imports in the gifting category. We are gradually educating people in decision making positions about the kind of employment that handmade generates in our villages.
For example, we at Tamaala work with 40 regions out of 800 clusters in India, we work with 150 artisans out of about 2.5 crore artisans. A small change ( 1%) in buying preferences in large corporations can enable entities like us in generating employment for hundreds of artisans.
- How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
The pressure is immense at times, mostly financial as we fund our artisans in advance to ensure that they do not have cash flow problems. And sometimes payments from clients are delayed – so that puts us in a fix.
Also, we do not earn salaries like in the corporate sector so what may seem like small expenses – school fees, etc need planning. In times like a shutdown, it is a double whammy as most of our artisans earn weekly otherwise besides the payments we make to them. Hence their livelihoods are threatened.
- What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup?
We are authentic and convey our work and our engagement with our artisans to both our retail and institutional customers. We also take artisans into events – both retail events ( like birthdays, marriages )and corporate events.
That gives them the opportunity to showcase their work and it also builds a sense of art appreciation amongst our customers.
- How is your company helping India grow?
While the current government has branded “Made in India” and has created a good marketing awareness about the same, we are focusing on one aspect of that namely “Handmade in India” especially in the villages and small towns. We feel that “handmade” creates a lot more employment in the villages. Today we are speaking of 2.5 crore artisans at various skill levels and various levels of engagement and they are able to earn a livelihood on a monthly business for their families. Can machines create this level of employment for them? We think not.
We believe that by speaking about the art and conducting workshops & discussions we are creating a group of patrons for the art forms. From a cultural point of view, the preservation of our native art & craft is essential for the ethos of India and the unique identity it enjoys in the world. By creating awareness of the native art & craft through workshops, discussions & story-telling – we are creating a generation of aware patrons who can support and patronize our cultural heritage.
By acting as an effective sales channel for art & craft we have a second the outcome, namely, the creation of employment in the focus clusters. This ensures that the next generation of the artisans also stay with their parents and focus on building their craft to the next level. This also reduces the urban migration to some extent – we have been successful in creating reverse migration in 3 instances out of the 150 artisans we are working with, with their sons and daughters joining their parents in the family craft helping them become more efficient and bringing their creations to life. The third outcome is that by working on innovation and design and fitment, we are able to generate supplementary income for our artisans.
The key innovation initiatives that have really worked are The Ganesha project ( eco- friendly puja idols made from pond clay) we managed to deliver about 2000 last year, the terracotta mobile amplifier ( patent pending ) we managed to deliver about 1000 units already to various events and clients.
We have also engaged our artisans in the Channapatna cluster on custom made game designs for management training programs, this has generated employment for 8 artisans over the last financial year.
- In your opinion what are the keys to success?
I am yet to find a “key” to success in the social venture that we’ve begun. The journey is slow and the rewards come with great patience and dogged determination.
- What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
Be sure that entrepreneurship is really what you want to do. In any scenario ( today being the most challenging ) entrepreneurs need to sacrifice a lot more than they set out to and the rewards take some time in coming along.
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