Tech-savvy rural idol-makers forge success through digital innovation

In anticipation of the upcoming 10day Ganeshotsav festival idolmakers are tirelessly labouring around the clock seven days a week to ensure the timely creation of Ganpati idols and meet the markets burgeoning demand This year the festival is set to commence on September 19Midday interacted with rural Maharashtrian idolmakers to uncover their strategies for utilising digital technology in marketing their Ganpati creations and efficiently delivering them to urban devoteesNikit Patil an individual educated in civil engineering alongside his two brothers continues to uphold their family legacy of crafting Ganpati idols in their hometown Their dedication aims to preserve a tradition that was initiated by their grandfather in the Pen taluka of the Raigad district and is now skillfully managed by the third generationEven though all three of us have fulltime corporate jobs we strongly believe in preserving our traditional family business Patil emphasised Weve inherited this artistic skill from our family so why let it go to wastePatil pointed out that with the growing workforce managing the business has become more manageable He explained In the past only a few family members crafted and sold the idols in bulk But now we have a team of 15 to 20 skilled workers working under our guidance each assigned specific tasks for crafting and completing the idols With the increased workforce the workload has reduced and the business has flourished even furtherReflecting a similar sentiment another idolmaker from Pen taluka Vinay Vithal Patil shares a parallel narrative Vinay 28 represents the third generation of idolmakers in his family Following his higher secondary education he pursued calligraphy and subsequently joined his familys idolmaking workshopCurrently managing the business with the assistance of 50 skilled workers Vinay has successfully expanded the family business into a wholesale operation with a global reachUsing digital platforms to maximise reachSocial media has proven to be a vital platform for rural idolmakers enabling them to exhibit their creative prowess in idolmaking and connect with devotees worldwide Vinay the proprietor of Vinay Arts shared that he initiated an Instagram account two years ago and the results have been remarkable He expressed Ive received an overwhelming response and received orders for idols through Instagram as well At least 70 percent of the idols crafted in our workshop now find their way beyond Maharashtras borders The demand surged to such an extent that we had to suspend new orders approximately three months ago due to our production capacityWhen discussing how he leverages modern digital platforms to expand his business Nikit explained Utilising social media has never posed a challenge for us With a solid educational background we were wellequipped to harness social media platforms efficiently to nurture our business We established our Instagram presence approximately five to six years ago and continually strive to enhance our social media engagement in line with the latest trendsThe dedicated idolmakers in rural Maharashtra are on a yearround schedule to accommodate the everincreasing demand during the festival season Vinay jovially shared Weve already begun planning and working for next years festival highlighting their unwavering commitment to their craftGetting orders from around the globeNikit mentions that they receive orders from around the globe Notably there is a substantial demand for Ganpati idols in places like Thailand and LondonBut the idolmakers also have to face a lot of challenges while booking the order One of the major challenges is the language barrierMore than 2000 Ganpati idols from a smaller section of Pen taluka are exported to Thailand among other nations However securing these international orders poses its own set of challenges One of the primary hurdles faced by the idolmakers is the language barrier which they must navigate to successfully book these ordersHighlighting the challenge Vinay explained ldquoCommunicating with the customers and giving them details plays an important role during the booking season While the orders come from different countries speaking to them fluently and understanding each others language is a very challenging task Now that most countries have distributors who are one point of contact for the order the communication has become a bit easierrdquoAccording to the idol maker there has been an increase in demand for Ganpati idols postCovid Nikit thinks maybe postlockdown more devotees wish to celebrate the festival ldquoUsually there is a slight increase in demand but postCovid the number of demands increased on a larger scalerdquoThe demands from across India and the world are so high in certain regionsareas that Vinay plans to take orders from customers or distributors who order in bulk He explains ldquoThere is significantly less demand from Mumbai and Pune compared to Gujaratrsquos Baroda or Thailand and London In order to fulfill the demand and grow the business it will be easier to focus on areas where the demand is higherrdquoIdols to be transported to locations like Thailand and London start getting transported at least three months in advance before the festival begins While that for Gujarat begins around two months before the festivalFor Mumbai and Pune cities the transportation starts at least a month in advance and lastly a few weeks before the festival for districts like Nashik and NagpurPreference for digital payments is on the riseWhile Nikit sells out his idols as wholesalers rather than retailers he still believes that Internet banking for a larger payment amount is preferable According to him rather than counting cash it is better to use digital transactions to transfer money quickly and keep it safeldquoWe ask the customers to pay through UPI if its a smaller amount but for a larger amount we still prefer Internet banking as a safer mode of online paymentrdquo said NikitAccording to the idolmakers the digital payment option has helped them avoid having a backlog of pending payments from their customersThe idolmakers appreciate the convenience provided by UPI IDs like Google Pay and PayTM which have streamlined the previously cumbersome payment process and made it significantly faster Vinay explained Now whether the customer is placing the order in person or over the phone or even if they dont have cash on hand its easier to instruct them to make a digital payment through their phones This has enabled us to eliminate the need for keeping yet to be paid money logbooks preventing any payment delaysKeeping the family tradition aliveSome idolmakers who exclusively create idols for instate transportation within Maharashtra have chosen not to rely on social media to expand their customer base Their focus remains on serving the local market in contrast to those who primarily concentrate on exporting idols beyond the states borders Hemant Ramade an idol from Sindhudurg districts Malvan taluka prefers to keep it a lowkey business Ramade who also organises water sports activities for tourists in Malvan as a secondary source of income prefers to continue the idolmaking business only to uphold the family traditionWe donrsquot feel that expanding our customer base outside Maharashtra is necessary Making idols for nearby villagers and our longterm clients is how we plan to maintain the legacy of our ancestors businessrdquo according to idol maker Ramade