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A techie-turned entrepreneur has designed and developed a ‘desi doll’, Kiyaa, and has begun marketing it online.
Facing innumerable hurdles on course to developing not just the doll named Kiyaa, which in Sanskrit means cooing of the bird, the entrepreneur has also been lacing together a series of costumes around the doll and writing stories that could connect with Indian values and kids.
A quick chat with Hima Sailaja Theerdala, the entrepreneur, shows how she braced challenges right from sketching, developing clay models, sending it for development to China and finally ending up with a Chinese looking doll rather than one with a desi touch. Crossing all hurdles, she now has a production version interestingly made in China.
Shailaja said that during a transit halt in Dubai airport, where there was Barbie show, she first hit upon the idea of an Indian doll, which would probably connect well with kids. Juggling with her job and later with a designer boutique, she has pulled through the design stage and is now ready to take it to people.
“Ï will start with online sales and as volumes grow, will sell them through retail chains,” she says.
After graduation in VLSI engineering, she worked for over nine years in the US and returned to India.
She later pursued a Diploma Course in Fashion Design at Hamstech and an entrepreneurial course of Goldman Sachs at the Indian School of Business.
After hits and misses, Shailaja has managed to have the doll ready. “Not just the doll alone, I will seek to popularise the stories woven around the doll, which will connect well with the kids,” she says.
Forming a design boutique house Shel Studio – Design n Events, she designs dresses for kids and is planning to offer them online and offline at the store.
She says kids don’t have to play with Sara or Barbie; they can be with Kiyaa.
Shailaja has blown over ₹50 lakh so far and has used up all her savings and borrowings.
“But, in the end, I have a doll with an Indian heart and soul that imparts value, culture and history,” she says.
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