On the Sangeetha Kalamkari Studio LIVE Facebook show, Sangeetha shows her viewers beautiful sarees and gives her audience a LIVE demo. Soon after, bids start coming in. On a show-quote-and-fastest-finger-first basis, the sarees start selling like hotcakes.
Sangeetha Rajesh, founder of Sangeetha Kalamkari Studio and the design label Sangeetha Rajesh, travels to the wholesale market with her team and displays these sarees on Live video! and sell these expensive sarees. She gives her viewers the best rate for the exquisite garments because she connects the merchant market directly to buyers!
While Sangeetha sells all kinds of exquisite sarees on her show, her heart belongs to Kalamkari – the hand-made dye art on cotton cloth.
Sangeetha’s Kalamkari love affair
Sangeetha has been an entrepreneur for quite some time now. She doesn’t just run a super hit show on Facebook but also runs a school. Always wanting to enter the clothing industry, she started the kalamkari studio a couple of years ago.
Her love affair with Kalamkari started when she visited an exhibition and saw a kalamkari dupatta that captured her heart.
“It was love at first sight. Nobody was even touching the dupatta but somehow I was very attracted to it. When they told me the price was ₹1800, my husband asked “do you really need to buy this? It looks like a normal cloth with which you wipe. I said, “No, the cloth speaks volumes. An artisan is speaking through this design!” – Sangeetha says in an interview.
Big. Fat. Dreams.
Sangeetha has always believed in dreaming big.
Today, Sangeetha is an independent entrepreneur that sets her own goals and targets. Although she does not have a board to answer to, she is her own investor.
Sangeetha took a degree in NIFT to get her basics straight. She kept reading books on Kalamkari, travelled to Macchlipatnam, Kalahasti etc to meet the artisans and understand how the dye and cloth are made.
She doesn’t just stop at connecting the viewers to the market. Sangeetha keeps innovating designs of kalamkari sarees by adding brighter hues and embroidery on clothes that appeal to a younger crowd – Tussar silks, Chanderi, Kota cotton, Chettinad silks, and even Ikat weaves.
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Sangeetha hosts exhibitions across major cities in India. She has become a household name in the country.
“This woman is a superhuman looking fresh after 4 hours. I saw many comments asking her to take a break drink water, use the facilities, etc. I’m just blown by this one-woman show that must be a $3-$5 Million business annually with her acute skill of sourcing from the weaver and cutting out the cost of a retail operation by going direct.” – Prashanth
Hats off to you Sangeetha of Kalamkari Studio for showing founders how doing business is a simple value proposition and sometimes we needlessly overthink about it” – Prashanth Rao Aroor, CEO at Intellistay Hotels Private Limited said about Sangeetha on LinkedIn.
How Instamojo powers Sangeetha’s saree business
“Definitely after Instamojo, my sales have drastically improved. It is now very easy to collect payments from my viewers and the money gets paid out systematically.” – Sangeetha tells us.
Sangeetha is just one of the many inspiring businesses using Instamojo to power their business.
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3 comments
Thanks for sharing this post. I am loving how you explain each and everything.
Amaing case. thanks for sharing
It’s really a very interesting story. It will inspire a lot of people who is currently thinking to start their own business online.