Hyderabad: While Shilparamam in Hyderabad has been tagged as monotonous owing to lack of seasonal renewal of products on display, the Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh governments are planning to set up more such establishments to revive handicrafts and handlooms. Though efforts are being made to increase the footfalls at Shilparamam by organising various cultural events and seasonal festivals, not much has been done to revive the artefacts on display or pep up the rich variety of handlooms on sale.
With the trend of handlooms picking up these days, returning visitors feel that the stalls lack colour and novelty. They demand for more authentic handcrafted work to be brought to the forefront and also to make them popular.
“We are trying to add novelty so that there is a recall effect. People should not feel that they are seeing the same thing repeatedly. Keeping Dasara in mind, we are focussing on bringing in Nirmal paintings, art pieces like Tolu Bommalata (puppet form) and other art forms,” said Madhusudhan, officer on special duty, Tourism Development Corporation.
A new Shilparamam centre will be coming up soon at Warangal and the Shilparamam in Sangareddy is nearing completion. Meanwhile, in AP, three new Shilparamam centres at Anantapur, Vijayawada and Nellore, each at a budget of Rs 5 crore, have been proposed. The assistant director of handicrafts
In April 2014, the footfall was 32,55,700, while in May it increased to 52,44,900, in June it was 46,91,740, July 43,57,980 and August 46,71,320, totaling to 2,22,21,640 visitors in the last five months. Whereas in the same five months last year, the footfall was 1,75,62,520.
The assistant director of handicrafts, GOI assigns the pattern of goods to be displayed and the local development commissioner’s office gives ID cards to the artisans. “We are planning to innovate because of the increased footfalls. The business at the stalls is also going well. Both APTDC and the TTDC are taking steps to organise many cultural programmes and also putting up new stalls.
NIFT students have collaborated with us to inculcate handlooms into their designs and give a contemporary touch to the fabric and organise fashion shows at Shilparamam to display the products. As against 106 stalls available in Night Bazaar, only 36 were occupied till April 2014. However, in the last few months, 45 agencies have opened shops and it is likely that all the shops will be occupied in the end of September 2014,” he said.
Three new Shilparamam centres at Anantapur, Vijayawada and Nellore, at a budget of Rs 5 crore each, have been proposed and one more at Warangal will come up soon. The Shilparamam in Sangareddy is nearing completion with funds granted through the 13th Finance Commission. Smaller units of Shilparamam called Urban Haats, that were proposed at Eluru and Kakinada with a budget of Rs 2 crore, have also got green signals.
