"A decorative mirror work covering made for a camel’s hump, sarees for my mother, block printing, mirror work, a lot of lehariya dyeing and bandhini – I picked up small, not very consequential pieces but I still treasure them,” says fashion and textile curator Prasad Bidapa, remembering how his love for traditional textiles began as a 17-year-old studying at the National Institute of Design. For someone who had grown up as an Army kid, the richness of the art he was encountering was instantly captivating. What followed was a career as a fashion stylist and choreographer that repeatedly pulled him into working with handloom textiles and reviving them, which the Karnataka government recently recognised by conferring Bidapa the Rajyotsava Award. “My first reaction was disbelief. It only truly sank in when I saw the government gazette notification,” says Bidapa, adding, “For me, this award is not personal, it represents recognition for Karnataka’s artisans and textile heritage.”
While most may know him for discovering and training top model-actors like Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma, Lara Dutta and more, one of Bidapa’s first major projects was for Mysore Silks in the 1980s, starting his long and continuing relationship with Karnataka’s coveted fabric. “The government sent me to Delhi to put up a fashion show showcasing all the diverse beauty of Mysore silks, and that’s when I realised how much promotion was needed. Later on, I worked on the same project with the former Maharaja and Maharani who were very interested in reviving silk and especially the Gandaberunda motif. Weavers of Mysuru were specially commissioned to make these very beautiful ombre-dyed sarees with the gold motif,” he recalls.
Since then, Bidapa has worked with several states, putting together the Rajasthan Heritage Week for five years, connecting top designers with artisans to breathe new life into traditional designs. Recently, he recreated a similar concept with Ashtalakshmi, an initiative by the Ministry of Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER), showcasing the region’s diverse textiles.
“Top designers like Tarun Tahiliani, Abraham & Thakore and Rohit Bal chose a particular textile in Rajasthan and worked directly with artisans to create something new. It started a movement which continues till today, a lot of contemporary designs in Kota Doria were invented because artisans started creating new designs themselves. Sarees which used to be sold at ₹8,000 are going for ₹80,000 today – their real worth,” he says.
Right here in Bengaluru, Bidapa curated the Festival of Handmade. Being in the fashion space since the ’80s, Bidapa notes that the awareness and use of handloom has grown drastically but more could be done, and the answer, for him, lies in tourism. “Individuals and organisations like The Crafts Council of Karnataka, people like Pavithra Muddaya and Prasanna Heggodu have done stellar work. But you cannot expect the private sector to shoulder this responsibility entirely. The government must charge the textile and tourism departments to revive and create a tourism attraction with these awesome products. Textiles represent Indian luxury, rarity and centuries-old skills. We need to monetise and promote this heritage,” he says.
With this award, he hopes to push for a project weaving travel and Karnataka’s silk production process together to further draw attention to the craft. He shares, “Something I would very much like to create is a travel experience down Karnataka’s silk route (Ramanagara, Channapatna, Srirangapatna and Mandya), bringing tourists to see how silk is farmed, spun, woven, dyed and embellished. So many people would come from all over the world!”
When it comes to Karnataka’s diverse textiles, Bidapa has three recommendations for pieces that every woman should own: the Ilkal saree, Molakalmuru saree and Dharwad cotton saree. He says, “An Ilkal saree is woven using a three-shutter loom. The body is made of cotton and the pallu of silk; it looks so beautiful. One of the unsung textiles of Karnataka is the Molakalmuru, similar to Kanjivaram but different, having an extremely heavy weave. Finally, the cotton sarees of North Karnataka are soft and lovely for summer.”