Traditional Assamese cane craft has gained national recognition through the highly anticipated Bollywood mythological film ‘Ramayana: Part 1’. A group of local artisans from Barpeta district specially prepared armor (Kavach) for the two lead actors, Ranbir Kapoor and Ravi Dubey. Chief artisan Jainal Abedin, from Bongalipara village in Jania, and his 15-member team hand-wove 30 to 35 special armors through three and a half years of rigorous hard work.
The decision to entrust Jania’s artisans with this responsibility was part of costume designer Ajay Kumar’s special vision. He was searching for natural and perfectly crafted costumes for the characters’ exile (Vanvas) period. Through Abdul Malek of the local NGO ‘Gram Unnayan’, the designer selected Jainal Abedin for this task. A member of Ajay Kumar’s team even camped in the village to assist with accurate measurements.
As the measurement process progressed, some technical challenges arose regarding the armor for action sequences. To reduce the stiffness of the local ‘Charpat’ cane and jute, making them flexible for action scenes, Jainal Abedin adopted an innovative technique. He wove the main body of the armor using a blend of half cane and half green and black rubber. Later, these armors were given their final shape and decorated in Mumbai.
Delivering these armors to the Mumbai filming location on time was also a challenging task for the artisan. According to a report by ‘The Times of India’, due to irregular deadlines, Abedin himself carried the completed armors to Guwahati airport to send them to the Mumbai set via flight.
Notably, due to strict confidentiality policies, the team of artisans was completely unaware of which film the armors were being made for until the movie’s release. The matter came to light only after the film hit the theaters. Jainal Abedin expressed deep pride for his village and the entire Barpeta district as his hard-earned creation shone on the silver screen.
