Sailesh Singhania was 14 when he started attending to customers at his family’s wholesale textile shop Singhania’s at Patthergatti in the Old City. Unlike other boys his age, he was excited by the colours of fabric. His great grandfather Seth Nandlal had started Singhania’s in 1926 while he was the textile minister in the Nizam’s cabinet. Nearly 125 years later, Sailesh who enjoyed being surrounded by colours, launched Sailesh Singhania — a luxury handloom sari line.
“My favourite childhood summer activity was to spend more time in the shop. I remember we had a buyer from Pune who’d place orders without even discussing the price. That was the kind of understanding he had with my grandfather. One afternoon in my grandfather’s absence, I attended his call for an order. I took down the orders, noted the delivery date and said, ‘uncle please lock the price first’. The buyer was stunned, he said, ‘your grandfather never asked me this question.’ However, to humour me, he did. That incident convinced my family that I was eager to be a part of the business,” says Sailesh.
Later, armed with a degree in textile engineering from Salem Institute, Sailesh knew he had to do more than just run a wholesale textile store. Thus started Singhania’s in Banjara Hills.
As he took his business forward, Sailesh recollects, his learning mostly came from the time he spent at the wholesale shop, talking to different merchants, weavers, buyers and even the salesmen. “I would sit and listen to the discussions at home about saris. My grandmother would list out names of silk materials. Her animated description was no less than a field trip to watch a weaver at work,” recollects Sailesh.
His passion for textiles coupled with the need to reflect elegance in every weave makes him work with 22 different types of handloom weavers ranging from Khadi Jamdanis, Mulberry silks to Telangana’s very own Gadwal and Pochampally silks. “My mission is to make our silks popular across ages. India has a long tradition of excellence in making high quality handloom saris and fabrics with extraordinary skills and craftsmanship. I want to make silk fun for people who don’t wear a sari. The weavers we work with need a means of survival. They are born artisans and we have to keep the tradition alive through them. The only way to do it, is by making the weavers believe there are the torch-bearers of their art. Indian handloom products need to be promoted with new designs, colour combinations as well as design interventions to meet market needs,” he explains.
‘Keep tradition alive’
Talking about a new range of ‘silver silk’ from a village named Pranpur in Madhya Pradesh, Sailesh describes how the entire weaving village was on the verge of ending their age-old tradition because they were unable to eke out a decent living. “I am not claiming to be their messiah, but I gave them my word that we can work together to keep the tradition alive,” adds Sailesh, who through merchants and buyers, employed weavers on monthly salary. Today, Sailesh is confident, his work with silver silk will be the show stopper. “My work with the weavers is on play of colours. I needed to urge them to agree to work with our colour palate,” he adds.
After years of work with master craftsmen, Sailesh also fulfilled his long-standing desire to showcase his handlooms at Lakmé Fashion Week where he introduced some of his new designs.
“If I have to talk about a mentor, it is my grandfather,” he says. His grandfather still visits the shop, sits for a few hours on a high wooden throne-like-chair with ‘reserved’ written on it.
This column features Gen-Next entrepreneurs who take their family business forward
