Promoting Tamil in a novel way

Twenty-five-year-old Mugil Chandran, a graduate in Visual Communication from Loyola College is embarking on a project to come out with T-Shirts bearing slogans printed in Tamil.

Hailing from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Mugil Chandran after his study in Chennai pursued his higher education in Film and Television Institute, Pune.

With the help of his school mates Mugil has designed a couple of T-shirts with Tamil phrases and slogans such as ‘I love Tamil', ‘100 per cent Tamil', ‘Kottu Murase', a depiction of Subramanya Bharathiyar, under the brand name ‘Tamil' with the tag line ‘Idhu udayalla unarvu' (This is not a dress but a feeling).

“Why only phrases, slogans and comments in English on T-Shirts, why they could not be in Tamil?” is the question that prompted this youth to take up this work.

He decided to design T-shirts to promote the language. He says that the T-shirts are not only for Tamilians around the globe but also for everyone with an affinity for the language.

“I want to celebrate the spirit of the one thing that unites us all –Tamil,” he says.

Asked about the deer on one of his T-shirts he said “Deer is always chased by a tiger, and says that even though the tiger can kill it, it shows pride in what it has, and that's the speed in which it runs.”

Similarly, there is a pride for Tamil language as well, it has grown and lived on its own, says Mugil.

Bharathiar and Thiruvalluvar images will be there on my T-shirts, they are non-political icons known for taking Tamil to greater heights.

He adds that Tamil as a language has not grown because of a single entity; it's because of the collective effort taken by the people who love the language.

“I am here to grow with Tamil,” says Mugil. Mugil had produced the T- shirts with the help of a unit called Frank creations and is looking for an opportunity at the World Classical Tamil Meet to showcase them.

He has planned to set up around ten kiosks around the city with the help of his friends if denied an opportunity to set up a stall at the World Classical Tamil Meet.

All the designs printed on the T-shirts are done using organic pigment-based inks that are skin-friendly.

He feels that Tamil, the very language, is organic because for the past decades even though the Tamil letters have changed, the language is still intact.

On his T-shirts a palm leaf manuscript with a printed Thirukkural will be a part of the package and a new Thirukkural would be used every 1,000 shirts.