June (centre) with designers Sanchita Julkha and Arjun Agarwal at The Park on Monday. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

The Kolkata Fashion Week promises to be novel in more ways than one. Not only is it, quite uniquely, a fashion week with a theme — Return to Roots — it also celebrates the International Year of Natural Fibre. Even more unconventional is the fact that it has a theme track — one that blends the Chandipath and Bengal folk tunes with the typical fashion show percussion!

“I have used ethnic instruments like the sarod and Indian flute to create the track. It opens with the Chandipath that is recited during Mahalaya and then goes on to dhak beats and the sound of temple bells. Then it moves on to drums and other instruments to create music appropriate for fashion shows,” explains Souvik Gupta, the man behind the track. The song has been sung by Tanya Sen and Rajarshi Burman. The tune was unveiled at a media conference at The Park on Monday afternoon.

The afternoon also saw the unveiling of a short promotional film starring the designers, the showstoppers and KFW brand ambassador Mahendra Singh Dhoni, where the Indian skipper urges you to “get ready for Kolkata Fashion Week”.

“The theme song for a fashion week is a unique concept and the team here has put in a great effort in creating it. We shot this promo film just before Dhoni left for New Zealand and it will be screened at KFW before every show,” said Yudhajit Dutta, director of Mindscapes Maestros, organisers of the event.

KFW, to be held between April 2 and 5 at the PC Chandra Gardens, brings together some of the best designers of the country. And sharing the platform with them are three budding designers from Calcutta — Arjun Agarwal, Sanchita Julkha and Kavita Agarwal. “We are very happy that KFW is giving us an opportunity to be a part of it,” said Arjun.

The extravaganza will see some of the glamour world’s hottest names descending on the ramp — Bipasha Basu, John Abraham, Chitrangda Singh, Neha Dhupia, Minissha Lamba, Raima Sen and Riya Sen among others. Sharing the ramp with them will be some of the country’s leading models — Nayanika Chatterjee, Nina Manuel, Laxmi Rana, Neha Kapur, Sapna Kumar, Bhavna, Sonalika Sahay and Shayan Munshi.