Who doesn’t love the popcorn at Chennai’s SPI Cinemas? Plain, buttered or spiced, they underline almost every movie-going experience. What nobody pays attention to, however, are the plain vanilla tubs they come in. But that changes today. In an initiative with Differently Designed — a new design house from Kai Rassi, the city-based platform that works with artists with special needs — you’ll now get your munchies in boxes sporting bright yellow cabs, cool blue mountains, a woman in red, and Jawaharlal Nehru as you’ve never seen him before. Launched yesterday, the four design variants have already piqued interest in what the artists can do, much to the delight of the three women behind it.
Spanish connect
School friends Indira Reddy (24), Kadambari Narendran (23) and Divya Rao (25) — an education consultant, a special educator and a lawyer — began Kai Rassi a year ago. What started out as an online platform to showcase and sell artwork, soon grew to encompass workshops and talent-building. “We wanted to change people’s perspectives of the differently-abled. They have the potential to see what others do not see and do what others do not do. Through Differently Designed, we aim to translate their view of the world into unique pieces of art and empower them by creating mainstream opportunities,” says Reddy.
But the idea to go mainstream, interestingly, came all the way from Spain. An acquaintance, Bhavesh Shah, Head of Experience and F&B at SPI Cinemas, was in Barcelona last year, on an innovation tour. “There I came across La Casa de Carlota, a design studio with an astonishing creative team composed of people with special needs,” he says, explaining how they adapted their distinctive artwork to create wine bottle labels, calendars, etc. “I knew Kai Rassi was working with similar artists and suggested a new project.”
After the popcorn
They teamed up with Alexander Zachariah of Chennai-based creative shop, Rubecon Communications, to finalise the packaging. “We chose the works of three artists — Swami (30) and Anjana (19) with autism, and Narasimhalu (45) who has cerebral palsy — that were bold and bright,” explains Reddy. Each tub comes with a descriptor on the artists, and their mediums of expression. While the popcorn tub experiment (available across all their cinema outlets nationwide) will be on for a month, SPI Cinemas plans to work closely with the fledgeling company going forward. “For a long time we’ve been endeavouring to make our cinemas more inclusive, so why not with design, too,” says Shah.
With 14 artists on board, the team at Differently Designed is looking at more ventures. They are also mentoring their talent by roping in artists like AV Ilango to offer guidance. “We want to expand into as many things as possible, from clothes and jewellery, to even restaurants. We’d like to collaborate with names like clothing-décor brand Nicobar, watchmakers Titan, and jewellery brands Caratlane and Tanishq, that we think will resonate with what we are doing,” concludes Reddy.
