Shipra Rohatgi and Sanjana Chatlani on the business of calligraphy

Shipra Rohatgi and Sanjana Chatlani have set up successful ventures that tap the potential of calligraphy

Shipra Rohatgi and Sanjana Chatlani are calligraphers who are exploring the possibilities of the art as entrepreneurs. They were in Thiruvananthapuram for the National Calligraphy Festival.

Shipra Rohatgi is a fourth-generation calligrapher. Her great-grandfather, Rij Pal, worked in the court of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah. “He was the accountant, not because he was great at mathematics but because his handwriting was good!” says Shipra. Her grandfather, Radhey Mohan, worked for the East India Company, and her father, Rameshwar Dayal, a bank employee and a prolific calligrapher has a client list with names such as Habib Rahman, Sonia Gandhi and Amitabh Bachchan.

Her first major assignment was making wedding invitations for Priyanka Gandhi’s wedding. “When Sonia Gandhi wanted my father to make invitations for Priyanka’s wedding, he sent me saying I can do it better than him.”

Shipra’s calligraphy style is marked by flourishing — the art of embellishing letters with swooshes and swirls. Shipra’s Studio, started by her father, was rechristened Likhawat Designs in 2000. “My aim is to make calligraphy a part of our daily life. It is a very small art form in our country and I want it to be seen everywhere. So, other than paper, I do it on stone, metal, canvas, walls, fabric (saris, stoles, scarves, jackets...), ceramic, wood, cars and shoes...”

She has been associated with top fashion and luxury brands. “Among them are Mont Blanc and Chanel. I have also done introductory invitations for Ferragamo, Dior and Tod’s when they came to India. For Tod’s, I made 1,000 handwritten invites, which took me 40 days.”

The artist stresses that she has built her clientele over the last three decades mainly through word-of-mouth publicity and this include names such as Sharmila Tagore, the Bachchans and Deepika Padukone.

In addition to Hindi and English, Shipra writes in Persian, Urdu, Marathi, Bengali, Gurumukhi, Sanskrit and French. Shipra takes online classes in calligraphy and also teaches in schools.