Fashion Guru and textile revivalist Prasad Bidapa, who has been honoured with the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award this year for his contribution to fashion, sees the recognition as an opportunity to draw attention to the state’s rich textile and artisanal heritage. He believes Karnataka’s silks, cottons and traditional crafts have the potential to become global luxury products, provided they receive sustained government support. In a conversation with us, he discusses the need to revive traditional weaving, build brands around local crafts and place Karnataka’s textiles on international fashion runways.Fashion has rarely received recognition in state honours. Does this award mark a breakthrough for the industry?A lot has happened in textile heritage revival over the years. Great people such as Pupul Jayakar and Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay have worked on it, but the sector is still not where it should be. Globally, Indian textiles are considered luxury because they are handmade. If we define luxury as handmade, everything we produce by hand in India should come under the luxury sector. Yet, in the end, brands such as Chanel and Dior benefit from this space, while we have not managed to do enough ourselves. Without government support, it is very difficult to change that.Even initiatives such as Swadesh, backed by the Ambanis, address only a small percentage of India’s artisanal community. If the government takes textiles seriously, it can transform the lives of a significant section of the population. Textiles are not just about spinning and weaving. The industry encompasses cotton farming, silk rearing, processing, printing, dyeing, retail and much more. Imagine the scale of employment and economic activity it can generate.Is the Rajyotsava Award likely to put greater responsibility on you to drive this change?I hope it opens doors and encourages the government to listen to the programmes and projects we have developed for silk revival, Dharwad cotton and other wonderful textile traditions. Why can’t we create globally recognised products using Karnataka’s traditional textiles and crafts? There is nothing particularly difficult about it. We need the right support.You cannot expect the private sector to shoulder this responsibility entirely because it ultimately becomes a profit-and-loss question. The government can invest in making weavers and artisans into brands, improving their livelihoods and giving their products a global platform. You do not have to hold their hands for 20 years. Support them for three or four years, help them build a strong foundation, and they can take it forward themselves.What would it take to bring Karnataka’s traditional textiles to international fashion runways?We need to ask ourselves what our designers are thinking about. We should be using our artisans and making it compulsory for Indian designers to use Indian textiles rather than relying on Chinese imports. There is so much rubbish in the market when we have such extraordinary craftsmanship of our own.Karnataka has incredible textile and craft traditions. Look at Bidriware, Channapatna toys and the many other crafts the state is known for. The potential is mind-blowing. With the right support, we can take these traditions to an entirely different level.How can Karnataka leverage its textile heritage to create economic opportunities?Karnataka, more than almost any other state, has the potential to do this because we are the cradle of silk. Mulberry silk from Karnataka has reached every other part of the country, but look at the state of our own silk industry today. If you travel along the silk route through Ramanagara, Channapatna, Srirangapatna and Mandya, you see very little of the activity that should be happening. These places should be buzzing. The government needs to take up the revival of the sector on a war footing, working with the textile and tourism departments.For instance, we could have created a tourism experience around the silk route, attracting Japanese visitors in particular. Groups of hundreds could travel from Bengaluru to Mysuru, experiencing how silk is reared, spun and woven. The Japanese love these textiles. Such an initiative could become a significant tourism attraction.Our tourism numbers are low. Sri Lanka, which is comparable in size to a single Indian state, attracts more tourists than we do. Textiles are not just an industry; they are a metaphor for Indian luxury, rarity and skills that have survived for thousands of years. We need to monetise and promote this heritage.On a personal level, does this award feel like validation of the work you have done over the years?For me, this award is representative. It is not about me; it is about the entire sector receiving recognition. I hope the government will now take up the cause with greater urgency, listen to the projects being developed across the country and help transform this wonderful sector into a global sensation.Karnataka, especially, can make this happen. We have silk, and the Japanese are keen to buy our saris. The world today is flooded with synthetic silk, much of it polyester-based, and people often cannot tell the difference. Even traditional Kanjeevaram and Banarasi saris are being replicated in polyester. When a genuine sari costs Rs 40,000 and an imitation is available for Rs 5,000, many buyers will naturally choose the cheaper option. We need to fight this. How can we allow a 3,500-year-old tradition to be cheapened like that?I want this to become an opportunity to promote Karnataka’s textiles and crafts, create globally recognised products and improve the lives of the people who make them. We have the skills, the heritage and the raw material. We have everything needed to make this happen.
