There’s so much going on after a baby is born that time can pass by in a jiffy! Trying to make every memory count, and create something that most young parents can cherish forever — is what Hyderabadi girl Anila is looking to achieve with her cast memorabilia.
Elaborating on how it all started, Anila says, “It all began in 2013 when my sister was blessed with a child. We had seen pictures of these impressions online and wanted one on similar lines. But we couldn’t find anyone in Hyderabad who would do it. That’s when I thought that it would be great to venture into this field as I always wanted to have my own business anyway.”
Her clients are mostly young parents who want impressions of their baby’s feet and palms, apart from celebrities from the Southern film industries like Sreeja Kalyan, Nani, Rakul Preet Singh, Keerthy Suresh, Tamannaah, Sridevi Vijaykumar, Ganesh Venkatraman and Nisha Agarwal to name a few.
“When Telugu actor Nani’s son Arjun was just a few months old, he contacted us to make impressions of his son’s feet. Later on, actors Tamannaah and Rakul approached us and got their palm impressions done. Sreeja Kalyan also got her baby’s feet impressions done,” she shares.
Interestingly, each of Anila’s creations are unique. While Rakul’s palm impressions were made of stone, Tamannaah’s palm impressions were made with an unbreakable material. Even actor Nani’s son Arjun’s impressions are made up of crystals — giving an exclusive look and feel to each.
This year, Anila has also introduced a new range of products — jewellery made out of breast milk pulp and umbilical cords. “I found the concept interesting and today, we get orders from parents to make jewellery or memorabilia out of their child’s hair. Parents generally send us the raw materials and we then mould them into stone. Recently, we even received requests to make memorabilia from ashes after the funeral of their dear ones,” she explains.
Despite a growing celebrity clientele, it hasn’t always been rosy for Anila, who took it upon herself to get the best quality products which didn’t create skin allergies. “We are working with babies and so, it is extremely important to avoid mistakes and allergies. We always have to be extra careful,” she says, adding, “I ventured into this career to pursue my passion and to help people create their own bundle of permanent joy, not with the intent of making it a profit making business.”
