Beyond Borders

Specially, considering that this business was never a part of his plans. He literally jumped into this field some seven years ago. Fed up with the slow service his poster business, Gift Right, got from framing shops, he decided to do it himself. quot;You had to wait for two months sometimes. One day I was sitting biting my nails over a consignment held-up because the framers refused to deliver and I thought, well, why can8217;t I do it?quot;

A spur of the moment decision very much like the one he took in 1972 when he packed his bags and took a train to Mumbai to start his own business. A regular nine-to-five existence was closed to him when he discovered the salary scales. quot;After college I got a job at Western Television for a salary of Rs 125! That is when I knew that I had to start the ball rolling on my own.quot;

In Mumbai, like most other outsiders, he took up PG accommodation and when he couldn8217;t find anythingto put on his walls besides calendars, decided posters would be a profitable venture. Bagga is the man responsible for the first posters of Hollywood stars like Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery and Marilyn Monroe pinned up in rooms of teenagers in Indian metros. Though later there were many profitable diversifications, like aluminum sheet religious posters over which he had a monopoly, today however, Bagga is totally hung up on frames.

Besides service on the double quick, he has also revolutionised the quality of framing. Travelling abroad he has introduced features such as dry mounts, which don8217;t result in wrinkled pictures, wooden, non-reflecting glass and plastic moulding imported from England which give unbelievably neat joints. And framing at his shop can cost anywhere between Rs 150 to Rs 10,000. quot;What we do is far removed from wooden frames nailed at corners and whichsoever board used. For every thing which comes in here we use acid-free board which protects the picture for a 100 years.quot;

Though Baggais a distributor and sells framed paintings, prints and photoframes to shops like Satgurus and Archies, his job goes beyond that of simply packaging beautiful pictures. He regularly buys originals from upcoming artists and prints of national and international artists which you would not get anywhere else, will be dug out for you from Bagga8217;s store room. Of late, more and more artists are coming to Bagga for getting entire exhibitions framed. quot;Initially, Samir Mandal would not agree to the aluminum frames I had suggested for his recent exhibition but I didn8217;t budge and eventually the show turned out beautifully.quot; He also makes sure that trained eyes decide what frame a picture will wear. Only art graduates are employed at the decision-making level 8212; something not heard of in this industry. quot;As we are in distribution, interior decorators and artists are just getting to know about us,quot; he says 8212; an avenue he would further like to explore. But he is not complaining about anything right now 8212; though hisbusiness is borders, the returns, a figure he will not reveal, are breaking all boundaries.

Indu Frames can be contacted at 6310324 and 6342326.