They wield the mouse to erase political wrinkles

MUMBAI:At his hi-tech digital studio in Prabhadevi, Raju Kakade clicks away at hismouse while giving finishing touches to an old picture of former prime ministerRajiv Gandhi that has been uploaded on his Macintosh. He then morphs the imagewith Rajiv's son Rahul and creates a montage with a slogan, "Tiranga mera dharamhai. (The Tricolour is my religion).''This, Kakade says, is one ofthe ideas he is working with. If he's successful, it will be flashed on LEDscreens across the city when the Congress election campaign takes off in a fewdays.For the last 15 years, Kakade has been handling the outdoorpublicity campaigns of senior Congress and NCP leaders in Maharashtra. A decadeago, his graphic art-work firm, Smile India, used to make huge cut-outs ofpolitical leaders using traditional screen-printing technology. But ever sincethe advent of digital technology, Kakade and his team of graphic artists anddesigners have been making political leaders look younger, smarter and morehip."I make them look better than they do in real life. The mediumis the message,'' explains Kakade who has worked as a photo-editor with aMarathi weekly.The poll industry comprising publicity campaigners,banner designers and poster manufacturers, which swings into action a monthbefore the elections, has an estimated turnover of around Rs 50crore."Earlier, the candidates used to spend up to Rs 1 crore justfor outdoor publicity campaigns, including putting up posters and banners aswell as making public announcements. We would have larger-than-life cut-outs ofcandidates and banners at every nook and corner of the constituency. Not anymore,'' says Pranay Chavan who runs a graphic shop inMalad.According to him, the candidates now try to keep theirostensible expenses within the prescribed limit of Rs 15 lakh. "In the last LokSabha elections, they even sent their chartered accountants to make a properexpense account so that it could be filed with the Election Commission,'' saidNaseem Khan who runs Yasin Arts at Santa Cruz.Khan who did outdoorpublicity for both Congress candidate Priya Dutt and BJP candidate MaheshJethmalani in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections said that in the coming days, he willbe busy campaigning for many more candidates. "During assembly elections, thereare more orders. But today I can complete one order in a span of two hours.Earlier, one order took around two days as the art work had to be donemanually,'' he said.Prem Sonalkar, a Lalbaug-based graphic artist,agrees. "I have shut shop and now concentrate on illumination work as I did nothave enough capital to upgrade my studio. You need modern machines to meet bulkorders,'' he said.Bandra-based artist Nitin P R who specialises incustom-made design work for corporate clients said that abroad, outdoorpublicity campaigns are more subtle. "There the message is more important. Thecampaigns appeal to the voters' intelligence and are supposed to make sense.They go beyond mere self-glorification.''