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Moviegoers in Chennai are in for a pleasant surprise as SPI Cinemas, commonly known as Sathyam, have redesigned their popcorn tubs to feature art created by differently-abled persons.
The Differently Designed initiative, born out of a partnership with Kai Rassi and Rubecon, collaborated with SPI Cinemas to create these popcorn tubs. The art is designed by differently-abled persons who work with Kai Rassi, an organisation that works to showcase their talents.
Indira, a psychologist, has a background in working with children with special needs. She is thrilled about the visibility the artists are getting.
The artists come from Chennai, Pondicherry and Dubai. One of them is 45-year-old Narasimhalu, who suffers from cerebral palsy. His landscape work of snow-capped mountains in light blue and white hues has been done entirely by foot and adorns these popcorn tubs. The mountains, Indira said, are by far the most popular design.
For example, ‘Mothers’, a painting by Anjana, now adorns the tub of Sathyam’s small popcorn. Anjana, who lives in Dubai, was diagnosed with autism at the age of two. She specializes in Madhubani and Warli art.
Swami, 30, was diagnosed with autism as a child. His abstract portrait of Nehru – a sketch reflective of how he sees the world, capturing them in their rawest sense, enhancing their physical features with prominent lines and circles – is now on the medium-sized popcorn tubs.
Zach of Rubecon, the creative agency behind the partnership told The News Minute, “This art to us is pure and unfettered by conventional education, and we immediately thought of how much we can play with this. We were involved in finding the design elasticity of these artworks to use them in popcorn tubs and other merchandise.”
Zach believes it’s important for designers to work with social initiatives like this.
Zach insisted that it was important to maintain the soul of the original artwork.
The idea for the initiative came from Bhavesh, the Head of Experience at SPI Cinemas, who came across something similar in Barcelona. He encountered an organisation that brought design students and kids who are differently-abled together, where the children's art was converted into labels and packaging by the design students.
Preetha Ramaswamy, a volunteer at Kai Rassi and instrumental to the collaboration says, “SPI has been making the push to be inclusive as a brand, and we thought this would be a great coming together for the visibility of these artists. We hope this inspires other brands as well.”
“This is a refreshing change from the plain white tubs. I think it’s very cool. This is the first time I’m seeing something like this,” said a patron at Sathyam.
To support the artists at Kai Rassi, please go to www.kairassi.com
(This article was originally published on The News Minute.)
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