Kohar by Kanika’s reel on jewellery pricing sets industry precedent, informs buyers uniquely

It’s cliché to state the obvious, but for the lack of awareness, jewellery has been and remains a luxury item. It makes you feel special, lively and empowered. These are special feelings which demand a premium. So, when Kohar by Kanika released a strong reel about jewellery pricing and its preconceived notions, over 12K followers took note while writing this piece.

The reel is strong, just like its in-your-face background track that explains in colloquial English why it ‘costs that much’. The video breezes through the mind-boggling hours put in by karigars of the brand who handcraft each piece. We also get to see Bhatnagar attentively placing a haaram inside a jewellery box with perfection. We see karigars placing each bead after another tediously to create breath-taking handmade jewellery. The reel goes a long way to showcase the efforts that go unnoticed when an entitled customer feels a jadau piece is overpriced, just like that.

“Price enquiries never bother me. What bothers is when a prospect compares bits and pieces of the jewellery with lower rates they found elsewhere,” exclaims Kanika Bhatnagar, founder, Kohar by Kanika. “They don’t realise that the artisan is working on a particular piece for over 15 hours. No matter what kind of comfort we provide, the buyer doesn’t take into account the physical exertion and hardship artisans go through to create one great piece. That is the challenge of handcrafted jewellery, as the patwa community no longer want their future generations to join the trade. It’s a dying art form,” she adds.

Bouncing back from the pandemic has been daunting for these artisans, who have become an inseparable part of Bhatanagar’s family because of their close to a decade old professional association. When asked about how was the reaction to the reel, she said, “All my followers are my patrons and have time and again alerted me of inferior copies of my designs at many places. Since the reel was released, many of them sent DMs to me, stating how they value my originality and that it is necessary to bring out the effort put into jewellery creation every day.

Written by Shubham Dasgupta

RJ Exclusive