Revolutionizing the Sari: The Journey of Suta with Tanya and Sujata Biswas

[00:00:00] We know it on head. Any gender. We hired without seeing the portfolio. I think nobody would accept this and people might laugh seeing how two founders have hired the whole team without seeing the portfolio.

[00:00:11] I'm sure they have the team members now, the heads, the two heads, they have seen the portfolio and hired more designers. It's not like sinking the calendar. The Indian version is difficult. Very difficult. But we enjoyed doing that.

[00:00:23] We didn't see anything happening there. So it was just like, we love doing it and we're getting money for it. But that also led to Suta. Because we thought, let's do something controlled. Let's do product photo shoots.

[00:00:49] Hello everyone. I'm back with season two of Chasing Creativity and today I have with me two beautiful ladies who have sort of revolutionized saris in the country. They've come up with a brand that

[00:01:03] you must have definitely heard about. Suta? Yes. I think most of us have at least one Suta Sari in our wardrobe and I'm going to talk to Tanya and Sujata Biswas about their brand, about their creative process and everything that went into the making of Suta.

[00:01:19] Welcome to Chasing Creativity. I'm here to be here and you said the wrong thing in the intro. Three beautiful ladies first. Thank you, thank you. I'm wondering she didn't tell me, tell Machu about Suta. What did she say wrong? Good one. Yes.

[00:01:38] So what I do know about Suta is that you girls came from a small town with no real background in fashion, you know, in the entire world of fashion. Saris too were part of your childhood

[00:01:53] in the sense that your mother wore it, the older women in the family wore it. You all maybe wore it on a festive occasion or whatever and you're trained to get into the corporate world. You

[00:02:04] all were engineers and how did saris happen to you? What was this? I know it's going to be a long story but give it to me in short. How did this evolution happen? Anyone can go first.

[00:02:16] It's a lot to do with our childhood. The way we have grown up, it plays a major role in what we have done. Mum always told us that you have to be independent and hence we studied

[00:02:29] what we studied, we are engineers and MBAs and that was either you're a doctor or engineer, max, lawyer, we didn't know any other profession. Fashion was not even in the picture ever. So we never thought about it but we always travelled to local places for

[00:02:46] holidays that used to be the fancy version of Ma saying that, oh you have the best of holidays planned for you and we used to go to a local village and swim in the ponds,

[00:02:56] pick lilies from there, then go to a weaver's house, eat with them, talk with them, then buy two metres of fabric each and she used to make sure that we hear the stories,

[00:03:06] hear how it was made etc. So she made our childhood like a full drama, like a story in our head. So for us it was the best holiday ever even if people would just go to like the

[00:03:17] I've been to Hyderabad this city, that city and you know that and for us it would be like you don't know ours, we swam with the toads, we literally like you know we bought

[00:03:25] our own fabric, we are going to design our own dresses you know for puja. So even if we had limited means, father was in railways, sub inspector and then we didn't have

[00:03:35] much money, month and money would just end and we knew all of that and then we would not know about that part but we would know we would be creating something when we come

[00:03:43] back home. So the whole year we would be planning for the festive, every time we go to village we pick something or other and we keep attaching it to the dress and

[00:03:50] make it pretty. So for us stories meant a lot right? So when we went to Suta now when now we see Suta, if you see our products, it's all about stories, it's about celebration, it's about getting inspired from the nature and talking

[00:04:03] about how the Saris travelled from so many households, so when people have touched kids are played around and the Saris come to you and that's what we wanted to bring from the villages because we know how beautiful it is made and how sometimes

[00:04:16] people who don't know it might not even value it as much and we wanted to change that, we wanted to revolutionise Saris as you started saying that. And why Saris? Because again it was just that it's such a beautiful attire and in corporate

[00:04:28] world when we used to wear it, we know it on heads. Any gender. You just don't. You turn heads anyway. No sorry, it's like the key and it was not just that, it was that people said

[00:04:42] that oh you're so carrying it so beautifully but I don't think I can or I need an occasion to wear it and we just thought that it has to come back you know it's high time. We all just wear Saris and it works.

[00:04:53] You know I so get that when you say that you know I don't carry it off well, I need an occasion to wear that and you know all these mind blocks that you have because I got married and I had a Truzo full of you know the heavy

[00:05:07] silks and vagara vagara. I didn't touch them, I give them away to everybody. When I hit 50 I don't know what sort of a realisation I had, I said okay I should perhaps start wearing Saris now and you know draping

[00:05:22] and all was terrible because earlier whenever I got into a saree it was like I was like a doll and my sister-in-law's or whoever was around would wrap me into it do the pinning, do the pleats vagara so I was relatively decent and it was like

[00:05:34] armor clad, there would be pins everywhere to make sure it didn't get out. I thought I couldn't do it to be honest. You know there was that fear like it's so stiff how do I get the pleats right and after I think of

[00:05:46] couple of months of getting into the saree and I only wear saree for a formula when I'm on stage or whatever for, I realise it's a very forgiving garment. It doesn't care, you can just throw it on and it will still look lovely

[00:06:00] and I think what I saw with Suta when you started out way back on your page was this softness that made it accessible to somebody who was a non-draper and I remember the first Suta I had it was that softness that made me feel

[00:06:18] like I can drape this, I can manage this. So how did you arrive at that taking out all the stache, taking out the kanji making it soft and feeling like second skin I think that was what really got me so interested in the Suta.

[00:06:30] That was why the reason we started biggest reason is that we always took mass saree which she would have worn two three times after the stache has worn out is when we'll pick it up and say hey today I'm going to wear this to office

[00:06:42] and we always both of us would pick that saree and we just looked at each other and said if this saree is what both of us like and nobody else is getting it

[00:06:50] and every time you give it back she'll always get it stached and again put in the cupboard and then we're not touching it. I said there's something missing right? If there are girls like us maybe who want to buy something like this

[00:07:00] simple basic sarees just make it very very functional and not those you're like stiff and thinking oh my god my pete is here, my pete is there and you know what will happen if this slips and what if the pain is not there

[00:07:12] and stuff like that you know people don't wear it because of wrong pete coat but blouse is not matching. I thought all of this because we don't care maybe there are this they would be group of women who would not care like us

[00:07:23] and when we built Suta we thought that you know how do we make it sexy how do we make it easy, how do we make it accessible young girls should wear it wardrobe the ones which is difficult you don't touch it often

[00:07:35] and sarees was made to look it's difficult that okay once you buy you have to put fallaging you have to iron it crisply the bleeds have to be in place and you know all these notions that we have built around

[00:07:48] a saree and you have to have a matching blouse all of that you know you have to go to a tailor who will stitch it for you take measurement and all of that like taboo that was attached to a saree

[00:08:00] but it was not the known reasons. We saw it and our grandma would just wear it just anything and wear it sometimes without a pete coat but just make it double fold and tie it

[00:08:09] so we knew there are so many ways and we felt why is not everybody seeing this and I remember when we first the first launch which was like the Mulsari with no border, no barely some tassels we added that's it no nothing no imprints on it nothing

[00:08:28] and when we first got them it was starched of course because we were refused and the biggest reason I'll tell you why they refused is that they said ma'am in this we see a defect when we put starch the defect will be hidden

[00:08:40] and then you know you love it more and I'm like let the defects show like the Persian carpets true let it be let it be visible if there are threads up and down I'm okay with it

[00:08:51] weaving defect I am okay with it you made it I'll take it so he didn't agree first we just had to buy a starched product we came back home all of us so we got like 40-50 saris carried with us back to our house

[00:09:05] that was posted in Hauda and there was this huge British bungalow we lived in and the massive bathroom we had like many many buckets we kept putting it here and the other bucket and the other bucket multiple washes needed multiple to remove the starch to destarch it

[00:09:19] drying it again 40 saris and all of us me, ma, baba, Tanya all of us with the health all of us are washing saris how did you dry so many saris is what I need railway bungalows railway houses so we had people to just we just kept doing it

[00:09:36] and we realized it's such a cumbersome process and we realized that defective by the way when we were hanging the saris in the garden or dangan it was such a beautiful sight we shot pictures of it we shot pictures of it flying

[00:09:48] we put it up people loved it it just flew off it just flew off we realized that there are people who love soft who want comfort they just not getting it and nobody is talking about it it was just slowly fading away saris would have just gone like

[00:10:04] and once when we go to the local stores usually you go to the local stores there are so many in your neighborhood you know and when we go there to buy saris for ourselves they would show us the jazzy ones the fancy ones which which is again difficult

[00:10:22] you will not wear it regularly you know it and when I say it's just a thing it's just like set the rules are set you can't change it it's not worth it that we can't be just dependent on somebody doing it

[00:10:38] let's just take charge and let's start something and that's when we and it was a lot of talking that was required telling people that oh it's such a fun thing I'm wearing a blue with a yellow remember we started with crop tops

[00:10:52] and t-shirts and wearing with boots and shoes so we did all of that to break the notion that saris are not supposed to be one way one thing that you have to wear it only in Diwali with a lot of jewellery you don't have to do that

[00:11:04] and you have to wear heels no you can do whatever I remember those early posts of course and I sort of took courage from that and when I first wore a saris with a t-shirt a lot of people were like what are you wearing

[00:11:22] I'm just spoiling a good sari and then there were the others as you say who loved it so I think you found your niche not in the a certain generation but I think what you've done is get the younger generation that is even college students upwards

[00:11:38] have started liking the sari when you decided that you wanted to bring back the sari did you all have any demographic in mind did you all think we are going to create stuff that is going to appeal to this particular

[00:11:50] age group or anything or did it just happen organically so we thought there will be girls like us when we started we were late 20's and we thought there will be girls like us and of course 30 to 35 who would love our saris

[00:12:06] we never thought it will be very young kids that was there in our head somewhere but then we thought it's not easy to break into you know like Gen Z picking up a sari just like that buying their own saris because usually

[00:12:18] we have all grown up with taking our mom's saris for their bills and events whatever college events but never buying a sari but now when we see that Gen Zs are buying their first saris or sutta it is amazing like we just didn't imagine

[00:12:32] that it was a farfetched dream we never wrote it down not said it loud that oh we want this to happen but it did I mean it started a dream come true because we wanted to start wearing saris and then also think of buying

[00:12:50] their own because then it becomes regular and another interesting thing was your choice of colours your palette tell me about how you went about shortlisting that palette because it was very unusual for the time you know these very soft colours this very blended sort of ombre

[00:13:08] tones that you all had with all your saris the initial ones now you've got like a complete selection but the earliest what was your process to come up with that particular palette for your saris we went really like basic and we went with a lot

[00:13:24] of our gut like completely whatever we liked we made we didn't do there was no research honestly there was no research on colour at what's going in the market what should we do what should be selling most absolutely no there was no intention like that

[00:13:40] we did want to of course give a lot of work to the weavers and hence sell a lot but we first instinct was to go with gut because things which you don't get will make like for this is one of our first colours

[00:13:50] and we just mixed red and white and they were like if you want pink then we get pink thread I'm like no mix the red in the warp and weft and they're like ma'am let's say what happens is by mistake if they don't see it while weaving

[00:14:06] or they just do it fast two red threads will come together they'll be like a more red line then white don't do all of that they'll do it and they made it and look at this colour you don't get these colours right honestly we love those minor defects

[00:14:20] you can see the minor things you know like the different colours a little bit of texture which is little different you'll feel it because it's woven and we mixed also orange and blue we were also like what's there ma'am what will come out let's just do it

[00:14:36] let's try did you research the market you said and you didn't research what colours would do but did you research fabric textile, saree all that or did you just go with your gut I'll tell you we learnt a lot on the go but we didn't do research

[00:14:56] we knew that Dida and Thakuma is grandmothers they wore sarees which is good for the skin morning till night they were sleeping sleeping in a saree is a beautiful feeling so all of that please do that so all of that when we see and we see that

[00:15:18] the most comfortable or the most you know the material they wore the most was Malmal which is soft and used to hug the skin and used to just drape however she used to again just open the saree and drape it a little properly

[00:15:32] and used to step out to the market so I felt that I haven't seen this material being used much it's become a household thing now in places where which is very hot but let's bring it let's see how people receive it because who doesn't like comfort

[00:15:52] having said that we also innovated a lot of different fabric which were not there for example Modal and Mal there was not done ever so when we spoke to Aditya Birla and they said Malmal and we spoke to the weavers

[00:16:04] can we weave it is it very thin and very light I said try it with Malmal I was not done before only we did it and it became a hit super hit it's not that we shy away from trying

[00:16:14] but at the same time so there is never that fear is dictating anything like there's not there's we only have to always see the number to take a decision though we are both numbers people but when it comes to creating things it's not always driven by number

[00:16:28] it's a lot to do with our feelings we listen to customers a lot like literally a lot even from the beginning when they said that why don't you do darker colors also not just pastel we did that it's not that we didn't listen we never made Maroon

[00:16:44] for whatever reason and customer said oh you never have Maroon in your palette and when we launched it it became a best seller it's called beat and turnip and we have sold thousands and thousands of beat and turnip but that's a customer

[00:17:00] research and now even now when we do something launches we make sure there is some version of Maroon there because customers love it and now we fall in love so yeah it's a lovely color for the Indian skin yeah it is

[00:17:12] now I do know that you have a design team in place but earlier when you were innovating how did you actually go about deciding that you know you did various things you did the frills sorry you did the tassels the pom-poms your designs were very unique

[00:17:28] so how did you come about the designs while you're searching not stuff or you're just seeing stuff in stores maybe regular high street fashion and seeing how you could adapt that into a saree I'm just very curious as to how you're brought very contemporary

[00:17:44] look and feel to a saree I'll tell you that couple of things that happened so one is we are very inspired by the nature whenever we see something and we're like wow look at that flower and the leaf together that color looks amazing

[00:18:00] lot of inspiration comes from the nature but when we look at designs we look at a lot of times maximum times it happens so happens that if the weaver community is free if they don't have work at this time say for example the ikka weavers are not having

[00:18:16] work because the earlier collection didn't do well so they get priority first and then again the base material happens when the other weavers are free so this thread is coming silk is lying so silk goes there and the ikka happens so lot of that combination happens

[00:18:32] but I feel like the design team also right just stepping a little back how we hired the design team also and how they're as crazy as we are or even more crazy we hired without seeing the portfolio I think nobody would accept this and people might laugh

[00:18:50] how two founders have hired the whole team without seeing portfolio I'm sure they have the team members now the heads the two heads they have seen the portfolio and hired more designers but the first two leads who we hired the heads E-Line Harsh okay Harsh's CV

[00:19:04] we never saw he kept messaging us and he kept saying I am in Banaras you know I am looking at this Veeve please see my CV and let me just come join you do a small project for you and what is this is so interested you know

[00:19:18] he is so keen and I was like we don't need designer we are designing ourselves and we have E-Line and I am like let's just hire this guy is so interested and then he joined after a year he was telling me

[00:19:28] did you not see my portfolio I had done this project I said what portfolio he is like you didn't see the portfolio why did you hire me because you are persistent because you are persistent E-Line for that matter she just messaged for the first person who we hired

[00:19:40] she said you guys your designs are so pretty I want to paint on your saris I said come join us and she would have sent her portfolio in my email which is still there I am sure and I have never seen it again

[00:19:52] and she joined as a painter like she would just come to paint that's what her work was and then she kept doing everything photo shoot me aadhaar aadhaar aadhaar design kali saris like brilliant people brilliant people but without CV without any didn't even see their marks nothing

[00:20:06] I didn't even know where I knew there was an IFT there was an ID and the work my old job offers be like you so many times we hired it just works the best it works the best we work brilliantly for us

[00:20:18] they are the founding members in the company and they have done amazingly well and how we create things also like how we said the contemporary thing comes in the saris is because we see saris like that in our head saris are so I think our visions are aligned

[00:20:32] the teams and ours that saris should be something that should be replacing another clothing from your cupboard so a jeans should be replaced by a saris so something like that is in our head should be comfortable why would you go for that right now

[00:20:48] we launch pre-drape with pockets why did we do pockets is because we knew sarika main problem is you can't keep it in the pocket right so now this side will always have a pocket if you get it pre-drape pre-stitched so we are always figuring out because

[00:21:00] I so we have a problem statement and we are dressing it comfortable you should look smart it should be a head turner for sure these basic things are there and then because you want it and you will keep ideas will never stop

[00:21:12] I think if you have couple of goals or couple of questions or some problems you are trying to solve you will keep making things have you ever been tempted to try denim for saris happening happening oh yeah it's one of our launches oh lovely so denim

[00:21:30] denim blouses and denim blouses denim inspired saris colors would be a lot of craft but it's not exactly denim but oh lovely and denim blouses with that so far your fabrics have been all natural have you ever been tempted to go into non-natural fibers for anything

[00:21:50] so there are couple of products there are products which has a little bit of those but that is also because of a problem statement we are trying to address like for example we did it during the holy one of the launches with that

[00:22:02] those are gone from our portfolio but then I am saying they were there because there was a reason because people were asking can I just put it in the washing machine again and again and I am like natural fiber will have a lifeline right you have to

[00:22:14] take care you cannot silk you can't tell me I will put in the machine silk will die you know blast for me just listening to it and especially from non-Indians people who are not in India from abroad they would just say please make it machine washing

[00:22:32] and I am like can't do it we did couple of tweaks like that but our main larger vision is to stick to natural but with our body tempted honestly because there is so much to do with what we have right now and

[00:22:44] they will always be with natural fibers for example viscose and those materials which are man made but at the same time natural so we are trying to innovate and figure out if it could be machine with it like this saree is a machine wash

[00:22:56] you can do machine wash but it's natural things like that we are constantly innovating and hence I say when you have some goals in your head you always come with creative like a mother for a kid like if you have a baby in the house

[00:23:08] and not eating fussing all the time you would keep creating food which the kid will like right so it's like that talking about creating food and stuff a lot of your social media is very personal and you've built up your brand and yourselves on social media

[00:23:26] there is a lot of sharing and lovely little snippets from your life and the kids and the holidays and everything so have you never been tempted to keep the tools separate and to keep it disparate or does it feed on the other how does it work for you

[00:23:40] honestly we share snippets of our lives because the brand feels very personal and a lot of people relate to it and say that I am part of your community because they feel that they are also part of it and that's been one of the I think key

[00:24:00] key source for our growth and it's not that it's very intermingle since we are the face of the brand it also happens that people forgive us easily they know our story, they know that we are like living beings it's not just a brand even if we have grown

[00:24:16] in numbers people just see as a homegrown small good brand you know and that has always helped us because honesty comes through with that but I'll tell you it's not a conscious decision that we have made that we will show our family

[00:24:30] or we will do this now consciously I'm trying to not put my sons because he's growing up I just feel that it will be good that if he doesn't appear on my page that's the only consciously I've done but apart from that everything felt very natural

[00:24:42] like for me I never even now I don't shy away from putting on anything like there's absolutely nothing except for that one thing caveat in my head that I don't want to put my sons photos up because I know the parents

[00:24:54] sometimes follow me the teachers are following me so they can't be doing that it's unfair for him but apart from that everything if I'm cooking if I'm cooking I don't cook if Tanya is cooking Tanya is a cook I go or if my composting my gardening

[00:25:10] which is like it's such a big part of me and I'm wearing like random mist clothes but I don't feel shy to put my absolute no makeup hair flying everywhere look so I put it up because it just feels like I'm

[00:25:22] doing something nice and I mean social media should be real and more real than and the moment you put a number like I have to post on this like this day that day I think that will become daunting and I absolutely don't do that

[00:25:34] that to follow that algorithm that making sure that I am on top and all of that posting every day at this time that I don't do that for personal pages and it's all handled by ourselves it's not managed by the team so that is

[00:25:48] the lovely thing about your pages that they are very real and they are very you know you can identify with that I love your page and honestly we connect with so many people on social media because they are all real and you know we met through that

[00:26:02] right and we have connected to that and I enjoy it because I am real and I connect with real people and so I will keep it that way always lovely when you started out you were doing your shoots yourself in your home

[00:26:16] coming up you know changing for that you putting up the picture tell us a little about that phase because of course there was a lot of creativity involved because you had a limited space and you had how many looks and how many variations

[00:26:28] could you get in that little space but you guys pulled it off even now we travel with a suitcase of clothes wherever we go we went to Sri Lanka now we carry clothes family vacation and like Mahababab both of us

[00:26:42] all four of us are sitting and they are like finally this time we go guys are not carrying work and now they know there is a team and every time we shoot now at least there are two people in the house even now we shoot in the house

[00:26:52] kids are asleep but when they come to our houses then mom know that there is a person who is taking the video somebody is taking it with the camera and we are not doing everything ourselves think now abhi to trip pe nahi leke jayenge

[00:27:04] like no one suitcases come already we are taking it and we literally took it we both of us are when all of them are asleep everyone is happy we spend time with them afternoon everyone is napping we get out it is so far

[00:27:22] I feel that's the best because we connect with our dresses I hate it when we don't shoot our own clothes it gives me so much of happiness and joy because I would love to present the clothing the way I have

[00:27:34] or we have envisaged it like how we have dreamt it to look like I don't like it if it's not done justice with there has been shoots by different people I just felt they are not owning the clothes so I feel there is so much emotion attached to

[00:27:48] how we have made and everything and we have no I don't think we shy away from doing this hard work and somebody is shooting our way don't shoot here sorry, sorry, fine we will just go there and there is no tent to change

[00:28:02] so in Sri Lanka we were shooting at the beach we were wearing my bikini and we were just changing nicely there and we were shooting there and sharing what are these two girls doing we got your shots in the house during covid it helped us so much because

[00:28:18] I think when you have limited resources to create justice with that it's another kind of master ship mystery box so it's something little is given to you they make better dishes it's like that so when both of us were together locked in that house she was very pregnant

[00:28:36] and small house very small house and many people in the house locked in and there was this flower bed there was no distance for shoots one or two lenses we didn't have light in the house we always do sunlight if you have seen our shoots

[00:28:54] we are mostly natural light shoot so you have to wait for that hour where the sun enters from this side because Bombay house only facing one side so this light coming in Tania goes in the flower bed and bending like that oh my god if she falls

[00:29:08] that Bellia falls and this corner looks so bad and we both got my kids acrylic paint like those wax crayons and crayons painted the whole wall like the true and then I stood in the corner couldn't even stand because there was no distance I love that shoot

[00:29:24] it's one of our best shoots because this is a podcast on creativity I'd like to know about your creative process now after all these years have you seen a shift in how you approach creating your designs and your fabrics and your saris

[00:29:40] the very innovative products you have now so is there a shift in your process is there a more deliberate movement to a certain direction do you go season wise how does it happen for you now I think it has become much more methodical because when we are small

[00:29:54] to do mistakes it was easy when the volumes increase you scale up you can't do mistakes and just backtrack it's everything is thought and methodical we have a calendar plan for 2025 also and what should be there and which we were should be working for this because the depth

[00:30:12] of each SKU is too much so every product we design we have to make at least 100 and 120 pieces I can't just on my women say oh my let me just make a golden sari with a blue thing and you know here are red dots

[00:30:24] and working together as a team is there somebody who is the more creative of the two does somebody come up with the basic idea and somebody refines them how does it work so it's Jatha oh yeah I mean I would like to spend more time in creativity and

[00:30:44] spending more time in just dreaming and ideating and all of that but we have to pull her back some days and if I if we had to just do our things I would be mostly sitting with numbers and stuff and then I would

[00:30:56] mostly be sitting with a pen and pencil you know like that's most of the most mostly that but we both are creative and we both like numbers but it's a little bit here and there but the design team is amazing we are so attached to what goes out

[00:31:10] that everything goes by ours even if they have been in the company for the longest time they can take all the calls but not all departments but design is something that is closely working with us I don't think we will keep keeping that way and photography also

[00:31:22] is a passion I believe you all started out intending to get into photography full time tell us a bit about that that was funny when we she came to Bombay because she got a job here I came following her because she is here

[00:31:36] which other city do I choose we grew up in different small towns and that was not an option after MBA so I came here we started living together and every evening used to say that what do we do is it

[00:31:48] this is what we wanted to do and because we got back after 8 to 10 years we are away and every evening we used to thought the same thing and we said let's start something small along with our jobs which we love that was the main thing

[00:32:00] and since she loved photography even I loved when I was young because I loved it and hence I gifted her a camera in college so she learned photography there and we said let's do photo shoots because it's beautiful we will be with nature and we will do

[00:32:14] pre-weddings and all of that then we entered wedding also we literally went to weddings but then the briding room just never arrived and we were like sinking in the calendar and the Indian weddings are difficult very difficult but we enjoy doing that we didn't

[00:32:28] see anything happening there so it was just like we love doing it and we are getting money for it but that also led to Suta because we thought let's do something controlled like let's do product photo shoots let us make our own products

[00:32:40] and shoot and tell the world that we are best in product photo shoot but then people loved our product what to do back in 2014 13, 14 then we started selling those clothes so those know how it all started yeah that's how it started

[00:33:00] but we could not put our fingers that when we said that our work should have some impact in people's lives that was not happening then we thought we will shoot NZO for free because then you see that their products are selling someone is making it

[00:33:14] so that was happening so we did a lot of shooting for free and that's not making sense and again so impact and again we said that oh sorry so once we started selling those dresses we said let's just get the fabric from we was like our mar did

[00:33:28] then we went to the villages went and saw saris and we were like this is what we wanted that's how moment happened in the village that's happening now when you have saris now you have pre-draped saris are there any other aspects

[00:33:44] that you want to explore of the saris that you have been thinking about because the saris is like ripe for more innovation I think yeah it is saris sometimes something which will always be our core category we are now going to deviate from saris and blouses

[00:33:58] we absolutely love it and we are also known as a brand so if you hear we will first think of saris and blouses even if we do dresses and menswear but these are other categories menswear, kidswear dresses which is complimenting

[00:34:16] so these are categories which we will enter for sure but yeah there is not so much to do limit in saris and crafts recently we launched Ajrak plus bandhani Lucknow chicken a little bit on that bringing more craft in just one piece wow

[00:34:32] there is so much to do out there and again there was scrap fabric left of organza we thought okay we have to throw it what else do we do with it on a mulsari we made flowers here hanging here and 3D flower here with those organzas

[00:34:44] so there is so much to do when you see when your vision is in place that you don't want to waste too much and I always say always look at your waist pin you will get gold there literally whenever we are trying to

[00:34:58] figure out what are we doing in the waist the best design comes out of that always like she said the scrap fabric we made flowers we made tons of great designs just by looking at oh this is lying and mix these two we made bags because

[00:35:12] the tailors when they had free time all the scrap fabric they were stitching and they made the fabric out of it I said what do we do about it they said lets make bags because its a thick fabric now

[00:35:22] then we made bags and its people are loving it so I think we will keep doing that but saris has to be innovated more and more we have much more plans in place but I am not going to tell you all of that

[00:35:34] one thing is out already denim but that is the amazing thing that we have planned there is so much to do also when you do travel a lot so do you bring back any influences from your travel that have gone into your saris tell us about them

[00:35:50] one of our designs were like only fish block prints fish and all it was only because we both were in the Thailand all we did was like our watches, mobiles everything was in the hotel we were only with books and sketchbooks and everything we were just drawing

[00:36:06] reading and only that we came back and we launched those fish saris you know what we do I didn't learn all these softwares to put the ideas in place so as to send all these snapshots of my sketchbook e-fish, e-fish and with the ink

[00:36:22] we would say that 1.5 inch, 2 inches mu itna bada and all we just would say basic language our initial designs were all that but now the design team is very very equipped so we just have to tell them and they make it

[00:36:32] and thats why I said that even the store design is very simple so we say that here any table should be like this I just draw it easy its much more joy in doing things basic basic is easy and beautiful being analogue in a digital world of course

[00:36:46] but don't you think when you travel when you are just travelling mindlessly or going somewhere you think that oh I should do this in my life when you see people and they say oh I could dance again we were talking just before this

[00:36:58] in the break that oh I could sing again in a different space from your regular life if you are taken out and you are put in a different place look at life from an umbrella perspective when you think that oh I could do this

[00:37:10] and you look at your business also like that not just life business you can do so much and what are you really chasing and thats one of the things that I think at Suta we truly believe in that its not just the top line we chase

[00:37:24] its not just also the bottom line that we should chase chase bigger things like impact its always going to be in our DNA and thats what we keep talking about that you know when the weaver if you cant give work to the weaver

[00:37:36] how much of money you earn or things you are putting in the bank its not going to matter at all then at the end of the day you are not going to be happy because he started thinking about the weavers yeah that is a lovely philosophy actually because

[00:37:48] the larger picture is always at the back of whatever you are doing finally finally what do you see Suta becoming what is your vision for Suta I mean when you started you were just a few sarees 120 whatever and selling at Little Flea and all that

[00:38:04] and now 10 stores already 10 more to come what is coming up for Suta see I will tell you we put numbers for generally AOP planning and you know 5 year plans should be there on paper we do all of that but thats not our target

[00:38:20] thats not our goal to just achieve that revenue number and bottom line we measure it in a very different way for example the team should be super agile we all work together and we are actually all of us together we are making it this year

[00:38:34] making the team super agile everyone knows about every work we were super happy numbers in my Kittna Mitkanay that is not the goal thats not the push thats not the only goal so our bigger goal larger goal is something else and hence I don't want to

[00:38:50] put after 5 years I want to be that brand or this brand I would rather be we are equally creative passionate and the team is super happy and at the same time we are profitable you know just making money so that we can do this happily for

[00:39:04] many many years to come making sure giving them constant work throughout the year and not saying that oh this is bad because the moment we suffer if we are not being able to make money or we are not getting money

[00:39:18] all we will do is first is stopping their work reduce costs this is the easiest way to save yourself and that's why we don't ever want to go and hence however we grow these things should never change and yeah making one more person wear saris everyday

[00:39:36] bring the saris back yes so the lovely thing is what has happened with Suta and what has happened for this generation I think we owe you a great debt for that is that it's no longer like the kimono yeah thank god yeah it's not the kimono anymore

[00:39:52] it's an everyday garment now and I feel like it has to travel internationally and hence we are making all these pre-japed ones which you can just put a hoop so anybody can wear it just to introduce saris to other people who are not in India or not Indians

[00:40:08] so because they are also getting introduced to Indian culture and intrigued to wear these garment and just have one piece in the water maybe to start with and yeah I will work towards it so did we see a Suta on the red carpet atkhaan it is happening

[00:40:26] it is happening oh yes we are just waiting for the photos at least we know at least 3-4 people wearing so we are just waiting for the photos to come out oh brilliant I know it's too much it's amazing to see homegrown brands going up there

[00:40:40] absolutely congratulations on that that is huge that's huge and may it go to the Metcala also Sunday that's a part thank you so much ladies for your time this was great fun and I am looking forward to those pictures from the red carpet oh yes fun video

[00:40:58] hope it happens but thank you so much after this I feel my creative juices are like all out and I have a couple of notes too like I am just going in the car and I say toodoo I have so many toodoo's now in my head

[00:41:10] I will just get it done lovely to talk about creative ideas thank you for taking time out girls