Kunal Kundu

Lives in: Delhi, India

Calcutta, Dec. 16: Artist and illustrator Kunal Kundu's Facebook profile until recently would have his social media followers believe he was living in "Delhi, India" even though his location all along was "Kolkata, India". His blog still mentions that he lives in the capital.

So, what prompted Kunal, whose book illustration won a gold medal from among 10,000 entries at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, to hide the fact that he has been a resident of Patuli since 2010?

"Now it is different, people know me," he told Metro. "But when I came back in 2010 and mentioned Calcutta as my home address, I stopped getting work."

Kunal, a graduate from the prestigious National Institute of Design, had already freelanced for several companies in Mumbai and Delhi before moving to Calcutta. Suddenly, these very clients seemed to lose interest in him as an artist and illustrator when they learnt that he had shifted base.

"It is widely accepted that anyone who has moved to Calcutta after graduating from the National Institute of Design either doesn't know his stuff or has stopped working. Two months after I changed Calcutta to Delhi in my profile, I had a steady stream of work. It was only when some Delhi publishers wanted to meet me that I admitted to living elsewhere!" he recounted.

Kunal "lives in" but doesn't work in Calcutta. He doesn't aspire to do so either. With two foreign agencies marketing his skills worldwide, he believes that already there is a growing trend for creative people in India to showcase their work online and reach out to a global audience.

Working terms in India and the whole of southeast Asia apparently aren't ideal for someone like Kunal. "Payments for illustrations in India are really low. In Calcutta, you are lucky if you are paid Rs 1,500-2,000 for a cover design. If Penguin India pays an average cover designer between Rs 10,000-25,000, Penguin UK and any other foreign publisher of the same stature will pay 1.5-2 lakh rupees," he said.

According to Kunal, outmoded thought processes and reluctance to upgrade publishing technology make an Indian illustrator's job an unpleasant one. "Even cheap publications in Europe and US take more care in their presentation. In the West, only an art director takes a call on covers and illustrations. Here, everyone from the author to publisher to the marketing-in-charge comments on your work. I mean you have to show some respect for the artist's judgement," he rued.

Many Indian clients allegedly make illustrators change artworks over and over again, "as if they are not getting their money's worth if an artwork is passed at the first go", Kunal said. "I have been asked to do half a dozen iterations or more, only to have my first draft accepted as the final artwork!"

Winning plaudits at the Frankfurt Book Fair has not only given Kunal the encouragement to soldier on but also the belief to showcase his craft globally while being based in Calcutta. The Global Illustration Award is an annual international illustration competition co-founded by the International Information Content Industry Association and the Frankfurt Book Fair.

There were five categories at this year's awards: cover illustration, children's book illustration, editorial illustration, scientific illustration and theme illustration. Kunal won the Gold Award in the Scientific Illustration category. The cash prize, a trophy and a certificate have just reached his home in Patuli. "Illustrators from India can rarely afford to visit such important international book fairs even if it is to receive an award," he quipped.

Kunal's already significant body of work includes illustrations in hundreds of books, whole or partial, and covers for several big publishing houses abroad. His prize-winning entry at Frankfurt was a Harper Collins book called Creatures from the Past .

For inspiration, he has Satyajit Ray, Shaun Tan and Oliver Jeffers, besides many lesser-known illustrators whose work he has seen online. Maybe Kunal also draws comfort from the fact that at least one man he admires - Ray - never needed to move out of Calcutta.

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