BENGALURU: For more than three years, Jitendra Kumar Agrahari has been making Bengalureans happy with his mehendi designs. But the business, which is considered lucrative, also leaves him with losses.
How did you learn the skill?
My cousin, who lives in Uttar Pradesh, taught me. He is also a mehendi artist over there. We are from UP. We moved to Bengaluru and started the business here.
Why didn’t you start your business in Uttar Pradesh? What made you move to
this city?
We could have gone anywhere. But we thought it might do well in Bengaluru considering it is a cosmopolitan city. We didn’t know that people in Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow loved it too. But we don’t plan to move to another city.
You must have faced challenges when you were new to the city...
There are challenges in every job. My brother came to Bengaluru four years ago. He was not able to manage the business alone which made me join him. We started with Sarjapur. Our next store was at Koramangala but it did not do well which led to its closure. We moved it to JP Nagar near Brigade Millenium. The shop is called Dev Mehendi Artist.
What are your working hours?
We work every day from 11 am to 9 pm.
How much do you charge? What designs do you make?
We can apply any design. Customers can also refer to the books we have at the store. The price range starts from `50 and then varies as per the designs. Bridal mehendi starts from `1,000 and goes up to `10,000. The price is decided by the intricacy of the design.
When do you see major demand for mehendi?
We get many customers during the wedding season. Some people like to apply it for festivals, birthdays or other functions. Indian Marwari designs are popular.
What about your family?
They live in my hometown. My mother is a housewife and father runs a business there. They have no qualms about our business. We actually do not inform them when we incur a loss so that they don’t worry about us.