Jagan Chakraborty is a young artist from Tripura who has begun a new initiative for this year’s Durga Puja. He has started acrylic hand-painting on sarees, kurtas and kurtis and is painting various figures of Goddess Durga in different moods. Jagan says he is basically a painter, but has never tried painting on sarees or other apparel earlier.
Last year, too, he had tried it. And, after painting on some items of clothing, he posted them on social media. He says he received a good response from not only the local people, but also from those abroad.
He says that, this year, he started painting on clothes just before the Pujas and has selected Durga Puja as his theme. He has designed different forms of Durga on sarees and kurtas. Interestingly, Jagan has painted a controversial Durga image on a saree. A customer from the city, apparently, suggested that he paint Goddess Durga in a controversial role, and he obliged.
Next month, he will showcase the painted clothes at an exhibition in Agartala and is eagerly waiting to see the public response, he remarks. He has gifted one of his painted kurtas to Amitabh Bachhan, he adds, and the actor’s secretary called him to say they had received the gift and he would surely wear it.
Jagan says hand-painted apparel is a new fashion trend nowadays. Keeping that in mind for the coming Pujas, he has started painting Durga on clothes and will be displaying all his work before the festivals begin. He claims that some business houses, too, are coming forward to explore this venture in the Agartala market with him.
Jagan is now just 23 years old and is studying rural development at Tripura University. In January this year, he bagged a silver medal for participating in the prestigious painting competition, Story of Canvas, held in Mumbai. Jagan has also received a cash award of Rs1.5 lakh from the organizers. Besides, the young painter has received national and international awards, including one from Australia in 2017. He has earned quite a bit of fame for his designing of sarees and kurtas.
