For these artists, there’s no colour in polls

CHENNAI: They have stopped making movie stars look good on hoardings. Now, digitally printed vinyl posters do that.

Facing an uncertain future, over 300,000 graffiti artists in Tamil Nadu were hoping for a temporary reprieve during the assembly polls. But with the Election Commission’s order of banning wall writings and graffiti, their hopes of earning an income by drawing larger than life images of politicians have crashed.

Agitated, the artists, who have grouped under the banner of Tamil Nadu Artists Association (TNAA), have decided to boycott the polls on May 8. “We have decided to boycott the polls unless the Election Commissioner repeals the ban,” TNAA president JP Krishna told DNA. “Nobody realises how many people are losing his or her only source of income.”

The rates for the technically advanced digital images is around three times cheaper at Rs6 per sq feet, whereas rates for an artist drawn hoarding is about Rs20 per sq ft. Election time is usually big business time for these artists.

“We used to get work worth about Rs20 lakhs during elections, and each artist used to make at least Rs1,000 per day. But now we are hardly able to make Rs50 per day, and even that is made difficult now because of this order,” Krishna said.

“The whole community of artists will be left jobless if this ban is not withdrawn. Many are already forced to do unskilled labour.”