Introducing (Me)rchandise
Merchandise is often curated keeping brands in mind, whether they be movies, tv shows or books. These set of posters are a fusion of Bollywood, Tamil (which is my mother tongue) and English. They are meant to be a celebration of what it means to be this quirky, quintessentially Indian blend of cultures and references which I haven't seen being represented in mainstream media. This provides creative validation to me and is also designed to be "relatable" to others in similar cultural positions of having parents who speak a certain tongue but have grown up somewhere else. It is at once, an exercise in identifying myself as Tamil, and allowing others to do so as well while experimenting with multi-linguality in media which I believe other similar brands haven't done.
Mood-board created from vintage publications, found objects and the work of Giggling Monkey Studio
This poster is a twist on the popular Hindi song Jhumma chumma de de. Here the phrase is adapted to include both the meaning of "chumma" in Hindi as "kiss" and in Tamil as "simply".
You might recognize the above phrase from the iconic movie Om Shanti Om. I re-contextualized "sindhoor" as "kumkumam"- it's south-Indian equivalent to signify a meeting of the two worlds and a personal practice I keep up to identify with my Tamil heritage
More recently, this dialogue from Yeh Jawaani Hain Deewani expresses the sentiments around marriage for many from my generation. "Dal chawal" is replaced with "parappu sadam"- a staple in a tamil, brahmin household such as mine. The same element is visually represented by the marriage "thaali" like I have seen my mother wearing.
Scope: This is an ongoing project and I wish to expand from posters to a range of media such as stickers, mugs and even t-shirts! This campaign can also be expanded to include other native languages to reach a wider audience.
*Watch This Space For Updates*
