Kangana Ranaut's Kotpad Saree Moment: The 700-Year Story Behind Odisha's Most Sacred Weave

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When Kangana Ranaut stepped out in Bhubaneswar last week for the screening of her film Bharat Bhagya Vidhata, she did not reach for sequins or a designer label. She chose an ivory-and-red saree from a small tribal village in Odisha's Koraput district, and described it, simply, as her "favourite Odisha weave." That village is Kotpad. And the saree it produces carries a history that most Indians have never been told.

Photo Credit: Instagram: @kanganaranautpeak

Styled with silver jhumkas, a red bindi, and minimal make-up, Kangana let the Kotpad saree remain the centrepiece of her look, a quiet but pointed choice for a visit that brought her before Odisha's Chief Minister and a room full of political dignitaries.

A Weave Born In The Forest, Not The City

Kotpad handloom is a vegetable-dyed fabric woven by the tribal weavers of the Mirgan community of Kotpad village in Koraput district. The craft is not an urban invention. It grew out of centuries of tribal life in one of India's most densely forested regions, where the community developed an entirely self-contained system of textile production, one that relied on nothing synthetic and nothing imported.

The sarees are traditionally crafted using handspun cotton or tussar silk, with yarns dyed using colours extracted from the roots of the Aal tree, also known as Indian Madder. The weaving process remains entirely natural, with yarns treated using cow dung, ash, and castor oil, making the fabric soft, breathable, and free from chemical dyes.

The result is the Kotpad saree's signature palette: a warm, earthy red against an off-white or ivory base, colours that no synthetic process has ever quite managed to replicate.

The Motifs That Tell A Tribal Story

The designs often reflect tribal life and nature, featuring motifs inspired by fish, crabs, huts, axes, and the fan-tailed peacock. These are not decorative choices made for market appeal; they are a visual record of the Mirgan community's world, woven into fabric the way other cultures carve stories into stone.

The Kotpad fabrics were originally made to be draped across the body as shawls and chaddars for both men and women, and were worn casually over the shoulders. The saree form evolved as the textile found wider audiences, but the weaving method has remained stubbornly, proudly unchanged.

India's First GI-Tagged Handloom From Odisha

The milestone that most people do not know: Kotpad handloom fabric was the first item from Odisha to receive the Geographical Indication of India tag in 2005. That recognition acknowledged what the Mirgan community had always known, that this was not just a fabric, but a protected cultural inheritance.

In 2018, Gobardhan Panika, one of the master weavers of the craft, was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri, a rare acknowledgement for a tribal artisan whose work rarely makes headlines outside Odisha.

Why A Celebrity Moment Matters For A Craft In Crisis

Many generations of talented tribal weavers of Kotpad village have been weaving these natural handloom fabrics for centuries. But like most traditional handlooms in India, Kotpad has faced the quiet pressure of declining demand, ageing weavers, and the lure of powerlooms offering faster, cheaper alternatives. A documentary on the craft, titled Kotpad Weaving: The Story of a Race Against Time, has already captured this precariousness on film.

When a public figure with Kangana Ranaut's reach steps out in a Kotpad saree and names it her favourite weave, it does something that no government scheme quietly can - it puts a face and a feeling to a fabric that deserves to be known.