From glittered God frames to velvet animal prints and psychedelic plastic flowers, what was once termed ‘loud’ is reclaiming its powerful position as Indian ‘kitsch’

xPlastic gods that wobble on dashboards, velvet tigers stretched across living room walls, calendar prints with glitter-stamped Gods — the imagery once mocked as “tacky” or “cheap” is strutting back into cultural conversations with unapologetic swagger as “kitsch.”

Kitsch, here, is not just about gaudy colour palettes and bling-gone-wild; it is India’s aesthetic shorthand for aspiration, chaos, and identity. And slowly but surely, the “ugly” is being reclaimed as the country’s most honest art form.

Step into any middle-class Indian household in the ’80s or ’90s, and you were likely to be greeted by a riot of imagery. Gods b

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