A Twitter campaign lifts Pattachitra artists out of crisis in Odisha
BHUBANESWAR: Two years back, cyclone Fani devastated Odisha’s heritage crafts village Raghurajpur and other artisan villages nearby in Puri district. Just when the artists were picking up pieces to start their lives afresh, coronavirus brought tourism to a crashing halt and disrupted the craft economy. Sales stopped and the unsold inventory of colourful and intricate Patta paintings piled up.
This is when Dipika Bajpai, a Karnataka-cadre IFS officer and Pattachitra connoisseur decided to use social media to bridge the gap - widened by the pandemic - between artists and buyers. Helping her in the initiative is a Pattachitra painter of the district Bipin Das who has been practising the craft for 25 years.
“Last year during the lockdown, an acquaintance had forwarded me a message seeking help for Bipin whose income had come to a standstill due to the pandemic. I contacted the artist and decided to buy a painting of Lord Jagannath from him. While interacting with him, I got to know about plight of other Pattachitra painters in Raghurajpur and nearby areas”, recalls Balangir-born Dipika who started by posting photographs of Patta paintings by the artists and promoting them on her Twitter handle.
The paintings found audience across the globe and as demand increased, the bureaucrat opened a dedicated handle on Twitter - @PattachitraP - through which she has been directly connecting both the groups. There is no involvement of middlemen whatsoever.
Bipin, who has linked 35 artisan families with the initiative, said photographs of paintings are uploaded to the Twitter handle. As and when the orders are received, the artists paint and send the pieces to the buyers. “Since the buyers are directly procuring from artisans, the latter is now able to get the actual price of his or her craft and hard work. This form of online marketing has helped us keep our economy afloat. In fact, the sales are now better than the normal times”, said the painter who has not just connected artists of Raghurajpur with the initiative but also those in Nirakarpur, Delanga and Kanas.
Raghurajpur alone is home to 150 families, a majority of which is into scroll paintings that revolve around mythological characters and nature, mostly rendered in single hair brush and natural colours. “Since none of the artisans are technically sound, this social media initiative has come as a huge help to them in these difficult times”, he said.
Through the @PattachitraP handle, the artisans have been able to sell 100 paintings so far creating a revenue of at least Rs 15 lakh. The buyers are mostly from metros in India and countries like UK, the US, Singapore, among others.