Quit wearing rose-tinted glasses. Get your colour fix this Holi with red auto rickshaws,a gold and yellow Qutub Minar,maybe even pink roads. Talk asked experts in the creative field how they would like to change the countrys iconography with a different colour. This is what they shared. R Raj Rao Writer and professor,University of Pune I cant associate Pune with any other colour except saffron. In the 80s,when the Osho Ashram came up,sanyasis went to town with orange and red robes. Id like to see all the saffron roadside shrines that characterise Pune to be splashed with green and pink. Green is the colour of forest and pink is the colour of queer passion. That would be a fun way of dealing with the hegemony of saffron and achieving integration. Rahul Mishra Fashion designer If I had to reinterpret an iconic element of the country,I would choose to work towards a new avatar for Mumbais BEST buses. They are red but Id like to paint them green. Not only will it be bright and eye-catching,but can also spread the message of being environment-friendly. Ayananka Bose Cinematographer Mumbais beautiful architecture looks stunning during the daytime. But the same buildings,the iconic ones such as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Rajabai Tower,appear dull by the night,because these are badly lit. Using colourful lights can help showcase these buildings at night. For a film recently,I lit the iconic Asiatic Library. I used blue lighting with red curtains to contrast. It gave the building a grand look as opposed to its subtle ivory that is lost in the night. From the reaction of passers-by,it seemed as if Mumbaikars rediscovered the building that night. KS Radhakrishnan Artist Id like to transform the Qutub Minar using gold and yellow. As an artist,these are the colours I use most often in my work. The Qutub Minar has abstract geometry,so I think that these colours would reflect even better and make a strong impact. Its an iconic monument in Delhi that is consistently visited by a lot of people,and I think that because these are also warm and friendly colours,they would draw even more people. MK Raina Actor and Director Somebody should paint the roads in different colours. The uniform grey and black roads are very boring. Roads should have interesting patterns and colours such as green for a signal-free stretch or pink to indicate a school nearby. Roads could also be named according to colours. Those of us who despair of reading the lousy signages on roads can simply follow the colour-coded lanes. GR Iranna Artist The autorickshaws definitely need a change. The yellow-back and green-yellow has been there for long now. Itll be nice to have them in complete red. Theyll be bright and can be identified from a distance. I would have said yellow,but the school buses are already in that colour. Unlike the common perception,red doesnt necessarily signify danger,thats the impression formed over the years,with how we have used the colour.
