Rare Planet: A Tribute to Indian Handicrafts

A quirky start-up from Kolkata

Freestyle

May 2, 2017

/ By / Kolkata



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Hand painted Kulhars from the house of Rare Planet.

Worli-styled pen-stands from the house of Rare Planet

Rare Planet is an unconventional Indian e-commerce start-up that aims to create a brand out of Indian Handicrafts and is dedicated to add a native touch to anything and everything under the open sun, starting from wallets, notebooks to even kettles.

If you are a fan of quirk art and want to openly confess your love for all things indie, Rare Planet is the one-stop destination for you. The entrepreneurial start-up founded by Ranodeep Saha from Kolkata has found takers internationally ever since its full-fledged inception on June 22, 2016.

“We are trying to ‘brand’ Indian Handicraft. We are just not another site where you get quirky stuff. We are a brand which empowers village artisans with modern ideas and thereby, create world class products using their age old skills,” commented Saha, whose brainchild has sold over a million products as of May 2017.

A hand-painted kettle

A hand-painted kettle

Rare Planet offers customised products for its customers and ensures that each one gets exactly what they ordered for, speaking on which Saha stated, “We soon realised that the products which we manufacture are handicrafts and in the handicrafts business it is very important that you touch and feel the products, to enable a better understanding of the products. We have around 93 employees in our company, so we don’t have anyone working under us, but we have artisans who work along with us. So they are ‘artist partners’ who create these products and we provide them with the design idea about the same; we constantly monitor the process to ensure the standard and quality is maintained.”

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The ambitious start-up has recently started venturing outside e-commerce with stores like The Celebrity Store adopting its many products. The young entrepreneur who is in talks with Crossword to have his products featured, stated, “We are the only brand to have tie ups with Oxford, Story and WH Smith.”

The Indo-Global Connect
“My aim is to reach Indian handicrafts to a global audience.” The rural artisans are the key feature of Rare Planet, their art forming the very existence of the company. Their successful stint in Singapore opened up the global horizons for the emerging company.

The Howrah Bridge painted onto the earthen body of a kulhar, the kalamkari design etched on the pocket-sized notebook, the beautiful Worli painted pen-stands and the unique “Historic Series” featuring Ceramic Cups of Harappan and Mesopotamian designs have found themselves a global audience.

A customised kulhar

A customised kulhar

A Kalamkari designed notebook

A Kalamkari designed notebook

A Mesopotamian ceramic cup from the 'Historic Series'

A Mesopotamian ceramic cup from the ‘Historic Series’

Martha Augustine, a British resident over-enthusiastically stated, “I love such Indie products, they truly are reflective of the tiniest nuances of the culture and heritage of India. Such subtleness brought to life by art. Honestly, I wish more and more people back home (read in Britain) knew about this and such products cause my friends are always looking forward to such chic boho objects. We find it cool!”
Commenting on his global ambitions, a 20 year old Ranodeep confidently justified the tag of the ‘Youngest emerging entrepreneur in East India’ as he declared his ambition for putting up his products in Duty Free shops and major airports across the globe.

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