Hindustan Trading Company (HTC) has been a part of the cityscape long before Madras became Chennai. The rather mercantile name doesn’t disclose the veritable art treasures it holds. Artists great and small, established and fledgling, have always approached HTC with hope, reverence, and anticipation. The shelves are stacked with virtually everything an artist could dream of to create their masterpiece. Now with the second generation at the easel, it sets and meets new age expectations. Meet Amritha Venketakrishnan, HTC’s proprietor.
The first brushstroke
HTC was a tiny art store back in 1974, which P. N. Venketakrishnan stocked with stationery and other items. Soon, the founder recognised the demand for high-quality art supplies and decided to establish a speciality store–one of the very few in the then city of Madras. Walking into the store were successful artists with their own style and specific requirements for brands and brushes; up-and-coming artists who came to find a good deal for assured quality; and the unknowns and yet-to-be-a-household-name artists who hesitantly stepped in practically penniless, just to gaze at and touch the unreachable tools they could only dream about.
The common theme that runs through all their memories of HTC and its owner is the same: a random act of kindness, a quick gesture of encouragement, a passing spark of inspiration. And this is not a celluloid story. The documentaries on HTC showcase now famous, sought-after artists who were at that time, in a big, very big or small way, touched by HTC and Venketakrishnan. Many such stories are the building blocks for HTC when it was just a small 300-sft store in Royapettah near Ajanta Hotel. Today, HTC’s repertoire of artists it served back then is a who’s who of today’s Chennai art scene: Kesav, Ilango, Thota Tharani, Manoharan, Sandhiya, to name a few.
Changing the canvas
Venketakrishnan ran the store successfully for almost five decades, but due to ill health, decided to take a backseat. He wished for one of his three daughters to take over the store. The mantle fell to Amritha, the youngest of the Venketakrishnan sisters. “I had no plans to join HTC. I didn’t want to be in this line. Running an art store was not my cup of tea at all,” laughs Amritha. “I got a job at MINT, the business newspaper of Hindustan Times, as a cub reporter for a year. The posting was in Delhi, but my dad refused. He said to do something else or sit at home and eat thair saadam, but you’re not going there. You see, this was soon after the notorious Nirbhaya case,” she explains.
However, Mint liked her work so much that they made her part of a three-member team in Chennai and opened up a branch there. She worked for a year when her father’s health took a turn for the worse. That’s when Amritha decided to take up her father’s offer. She would be a salaried employee, learn the ropes, and eventually take over. Learning the ropes proved to be quite a challenge. Growing up, she had seen her father return home in the evenings and diligently go through the day’s accounts and thought nothing of it. Now, when it was her turn, Amritha worked overtime too, but only to make sure every last piece of data was computerised.
Recalling her early years at HTC, Amritha says, “When I came in, it was paper bills, manual stock taking, everything was pen and paper! I worked towards that first. I like to delegate and look at the big picture.” She laughs, “Much to my dad’s ire, because he had only two employees since he began. So, he couldn’t understand why I wanted more people. But that’s the way I wanted to work. I hired more people and freed up my time to work on other things.” Amritha next needed more space to expand the inventory. Instead of waiting, she decided to take up space as and when someone vacated an office and use it for the display of canvases or the growing range of products. “We managed like that for four to five years. After that, we wanted to expand. In 2014, we opened the Madras Art Store in Alwarpet. My father, though reluctant at first, said ok, go for it. What’s the worst that could happen?” she smiles.
By 2020, the building that housed the main store was out of litigation, and they were finally able to get the space they wanted. COVID shouldn’t prevent progress, was Amritha’s strong belief. They decided to close up Madras Art Store and consolidate everything under one roof. So that led to a huge transition: from a 1000 sft showroom to a 4000 sft one, which was a giant leap in retail for Amritha. She recalls it being especially difficult, considering there was no labour to work on setting up the store. “It was quite challenging just to set up the store, more difficult than it needed to be.”
Building blocks
Part of the legacy that Amritha had inherited was the intricate network of relationships. In this era of digital dependence, she wants to foster a sense of community through HTC. “Conducting workshops is a big part of my vision for HTC. A lot of what I was able to achieve couldn’t have been done in my father’s time. The market didn’t exist then; it does now,” she says candidly. “And that’s simply because people were more conservative in their spending. Meeting and interacting with others, even if they shared common interests, was not a thing in those days.” HTC conducts weekend workshops where they invite artists and artisans in the medium they specialise in. From lino printing to pottery to gouache to Madhubani painting. Amritha says, “Just last weekend we had a Madhubani class, using pen and ink. So many people turned up for that! We like to explore mediums that are not considered mainstream. It allows our customers to explore art forms and meet new people.”
Amritha has kept pace with the changing times. It reflects in her management style, as it does with the inventory. HTC today stocks every imaginable art implement. They stock brands big and small, local and international: from Apsara and Natraj and Camel to Faber Castell and Staedtler and Prismacolor and Derwent, to name a few from a very long list. HTC also stocks craft materials. One such product is crochet threads, which has grown in popularity in recent times. Amritha travels to China, Japan, Europe, Australia, and the US to scout for new products and brands. “We’re like a supermarket for art and stock a variety of products. Again, it’s a foundation that Appa laid: everything under one roof and try not to say no to the customer. You see, I stock based on demand, rather than the quantity of sales. I feel this segment is driven by passion and cannot be driven by profit. If you ask me for twenty pieces of something, I’ll have it. If you want a brand or a product that is hard to come by anywhere else, I’ll stock it. Even if it’s slow-moving, just because a customer wanted it,” says Amritha categorically.
HTC is poised to open another store in Chennai. Amritha is not worried about the threat of e-commerce taking over brick-and-mortar. She brushes away doomsday scenarios about the end of retail as we know it. She clarifies, saying, “I find that people mostly go online only to buy the stuff they need. But when they go to the store, it’s way less pressure, and they’re not unsure of what they’re buying. The touch and feel element cannot be replaced easily. Besides, there’s a dearth of things to do in Chennai. People want to interact with other people. So our workshops draw them in, and they meet others and learn by interacting.”
Having said that, Amritha makes no bones about needing social media to keep up with the times. “I’d be a fool not to address the importance of an online presence. We’re very active on Instagram and Facebook.” HTC has a WhatsApp presence as well. They deliver orders in under 15 minutes within a specified radius. Amritha has recently made a slew of documentaries about HTC for Instagram and YouTube, where she traces the beginnings of HTC, the founder and his team, the products and brands they stock(ed), and of course the luminaries of the art world. She has released four videos, and there are more to come.
Amritha Venketakrishnan has come a long way. From a teenager struggling to choose between CA/ MBA and journalism, to the daughter who took over her father’s dreams, to the proprietor of one of the most respected art stores in Chennai, Amritha’s grit and never-say-die attitude pave the way for another fifty years of Chennai’s artscape.
For further details, check the Hindustan Trading Company website www.htconline.in
