Designers Manish Malhotra, Anamika Khanna, others back NFTs

New Delhi: The NFT frenzy is not hidden to anyone. With artists to celebrities already in for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the latest entries hopping onto the bandwagon are the country’s top fashion designers. From Manish Malhotra to Anamika Khanna, all are of the view that NFTs are a reliable income source for their digital collections.

The latest names backing the NFT craze include Manish Malhotra, Raghavendra Rathore, Anamika Khanna and Pankaj & Nidhi. Most of them witnessed a quick sale of their initial drops of digital artwork on NFT marketplaces.

The first platform where Malhotra released his NFTs was RISE Worldwide, the sports and lifestyle arm of Reliance Industries. “Manish dropped five NFTs, which sold out within seconds. This really created a conversation in the industry, and we have seen many designers join in since then,” Economic Times quoted Jaspreet Chandok, head of RISE Fashion and Lifestyle, as saying.

Talking about his first NFT launch, Malhotra said, “Our first drop in association with FDCI X Lakmé Fashion Week was a tremendous success. “I knew the future of digital was materialised and monetised; it’s going to be a mainstay in culture,” he said.

Moreover, the ingenious designer believes that the space was perfect for getting Indian craft and technology under one unit. “We’re just testing the waters right now and can’t wait to explore its horizons,” Malhotra said.

Meanwhile, Khanna, who runs the brand AK-OK, said launching the NFTs was quite an interesting and fun experience. “The moment our artwork was launched, people picked it up within minutes which goes on to show the demand and craze about the space,” Khanna said.

Taking note of the royalty-based system of the NFT marketplace, Khanna added that if something was ever re-sold by a buyer, a certain percentage always would go to the original seller or creator, so there’s a life-long opportunity to keep earning.

Rathore too sees the future in NFTs. “The earning power of NFTs is lucrative and has invited interest where everyone is trying to own the first of the lot, so the lifetime value of an NFT will increase,” Rathore said.