Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged the entertainment industry to popularise handloom products across the country and make them fashionable among the younger generation.
Inaugurating the National Handloom Day and launching the India Handloom brand in Chennai, Modi said traditional weaving sector would get a big boost if at least one out of five films decide to use handlooms for their costumes.
"We need to make our handloom tradition the centrepiece of fashion for India and the world," the Prime Minister said.
At the function organised by the union textiles ministry, Modi called for powerful branding of India Handlooms and aggressive marketing of the brand globally.
Modi began in accented Tamil -- saying that he was very happy to be in Tamil Nadu -- and then switched to English and Hindi as he thanked chief minister J Jayalalithaa and her government for hosting the weavers.
He said handloom has inherent strengths that can make it a powerful global brand.
“It should become a movement and not confined to observing and celebrating a day,” he said asking “the nation to aggressively sell traditional weaving strength with the help of modern marketing methods”.
He urged the sector to promote handloom products aggressively among those conscious of the environment as the fabrics use only natural fibres and natural dyes.
{{/usCountry}}He urged the sector to promote handloom products aggressively among those conscious of the environment as the fabrics use only natural fibres and natural dyes.
{{/usCountry}}“We now also need to enhance the use of handlooms in our daily use -- it will support handlooms and weavers," the Prime Minister said while urging the nation to use handlooms whenever they can.
“Whenever I think of khadi and handloom, I feel the same satisfaction as eating something my mother has prepared for me with love," he added.
Modi said handlooms and khadi should go the e-commerce route for rapid progress and prosperity.
Earlier, union minister of state for textiles, Santosh Kumar Gangwar thanked TN chief minister Jayalalithaa for holding the Handloom Day function in Chennai.
Jayalalithaa herself said it was most appropriate that the first National Handloom Day function was held in Chennai as Tamil Nadu held the pride of place in the textile and handlooms sector.
The National Handloom Day, August 7, commemorates the day on which the Swadeshi movement was launched in 1905. Tamil Nadu played a very important role in the Swadeshi movement, Jayalalithaa said.
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