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Object: How do you define the idea behind the editorial?
Nikhil Rajan D: “It came from the generalisations of beauty or fashion imagery from India. When outsiders shoot or show India, there’s a generalisation—they show a cow, or gods and goddesses, and obviously flowers and colours. It’s a tongue-in-cheek commentary on how we still feed into the white gaze. It’s a re-entry into the subject of neocolonialism. Instead of being original and creating imagery in the country that talks about where we’re at and how far we’ve moved on since colonial rule, a lot of creatives and brands are making imagery that plays into the generaliations white people have portrayed us as.”
Object: Does the media portray India more authentically now?
Do we, as a people, feel more confident in our Indianness?
NRD: “I think people are very educated about identity, but the media has moved at a slow pace in terms of forming an identity. We continue to talk about the same narratives—small towns, the “woman in the sari,” or even the same backdrops. While we’re endorsing and embracing our Indianness in some sense, I feel like we haven’t formed a very clear identity of where we stand in the fashion space. While it’s evolving and there are a bunch of people doing cool things, there aren’t many new ideas or concepts.”
Object: And marigolds play into this exoticised vision of India.
NRD: “It’s a long-standing theme in work created in India for an international audience—from a brand to an editorial. A marigold is representative of India, even when it’s not relevant. Sometimes it’s strung around someone’s neck, whether they’re wearing a suit or a gown. Because we’ve seen it represented by so many people across the world, I feel like it kind of makes us look like we have marigolds on us, around us, all the time—to the extent where it almost feels gimmicky.”
