Bringing back the 'Old is Gold' mantra, Bohra Sisters have showcased illustration with stop-motion in the most unique way. Their work will give you a sneak peek into their childhood memories, meet their granny, iconic Bollywood scenes, old Hindi songs, and a lot more.
Get lost in the warm, happy, and nostalgic world of Sakina and Zainab Sabunwala on their Instagram page Bohra Sisters! Capturing, illustrating, and animating the beauty of small towns, old Hindi songs, Family, childhood memories, and culture, 'Bohra Sisters' will definitely take you back to the good old days with their warm and relatable digital artworks.
Hailing from Udaipur, Rajasthan, Sakina and Zainab work together virtually from two different countries. Sakina works on it from San Francisco while Zainab from Kuwait. Their Instagram page was born out of their love for drawing and animation. ''We actually started the page to collaborate our hobbies of animation and drawing. After completing my Engineering, I started working for a marketing firm and got introduced to animation there. While my sister Sakina has always been passionate about art and craft. We are both full-time artists now.", said Zainab.
Professionally, the sisters are engineers. Zainab is a mom to 18 months old, while the elder sister Sakina lives in San Francisco and she is a mother of 3. What started in 2015 as a hobby has now turned into their full-time career. They get all the work done through video calls and have no plans to stop. " We make stop motion videos, illustrations, and doodles. We have always loved stop-motion videos and wanted to work with this style on our page.", said Zainab.
Watching their videos is like diving back in time. It's a blend of simple life, local vendors, street food, Bollywood, and many familiar characters. "We are both mid to late 80’s kids, and have grown up listening to Hindi music. Our parents used to love listening to old Hindi songs, and we love the old charm of Hindi music. The songs are meaningful with beautiful compositions. Above all, they instantly lift your mood.", she said.
Their page is a reflection of Sakina and Zainab's childhood memories. It has many illustrations of their parents and their grandmother. " So, we moved to India during the gulf war and resided there for almost 7 years. Our most precious childhood years were in India with our grandparents. Our Nani was so loving and caring. She was full of life and an extremely positive, selfless, and happy lady. There is an endless number of memories with her. Every day our school bus would stop to pick up a student under Nani's house and she would be waiting for the bus with 2 chocolates to give to us. No one will ever love us like how she did. Through our work, we relive those beautiful childhood days with her. In short, a simple meaningful life.", she smiled.
Through their series of illustrations, you'll get to know unknown yet very familiar faces like the local Tailor, fruit and vegetable seller, and many other such vendors. The sisters have given them names, and the way they have been portrayed will instantly bring a smile to your face. " We have used fictitious names for a lot of the characters, barring a few, but the incidents portrayed in our videos are all taken from real experiences. We always feel that it's unfair to bargain with street vendors as they already struggle to make ends meet, while we all mindlessly spend in malls and big supermarkets. Through our work, we try to spread awareness to shop locally and support small businesses. They need our help, especially in this tough time.", she said.
Another beautiful and major part of their work is portraying characters from Bollywood. There is Shammi Kapoor, Uday Shetty, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, Nargis, and many other celebrities and characters. They pick their favourite ones and turn them into digital artworks. " We have been huge fans of Bollywood movies. Some comedy scenes like Uday Shetty's or Pappa from Munna Bhai instantly cheers us up. So, we decided to recreate it in art form.", she added.
Being food enthusiasts, Sakina and Zainab have made sure their Instagram is also drool-worthy. Right from the Bun Maska and Chai of Parsi cafes, to ‘Gulnaaz begum's exotic gulkand at Ajmer Sharif”, to D'zousa aunty's plum cake, to fresh samosas, sheer khurma, and jalebis, their feed will make you hungry too. " We both love Indian street food and Rajasthani Daal Baati, Thaali is so simple yet so nourishing and wholesome. We had to make a video on it :)", she said.
Bohra Sisters have recently done a project for Kolkata Knight Riders, and it looks fantastic. Talking about their love for SRK they said, "We’ve always been huge SRK fans, and to be able to create something for his team was certainly a big high for us!
Social media is such a great platform to showcase your art. We have always received so much love and appreciation from everyone. So, we can't think of any other better career."
Before moving to different sub-continents, Bohra Sisters stayed in Bengaluru for a while and completed their degrees there. " We both lived in Bangalore for a few years, eating Dosas and piping hot idlis were our favorite.", added Zainab. Since both of them are Udaipurians by heart, they love Udaipur a lot. "We love the local leather shops of Udaipur. So, whenever we come to India that's the first place we visit.", she added.
The animated videos are very detailed, and even though they are short, you would want to watch them on repeat. Showcasing culture and tradition is another thing that Bohra Sisters are quite into. Talking about their favourite project, they said, " We love almost all the videos we make but if we have to choose a certain one then it has to be the video we did for Igers Rajasthan, we have showcased snippets of Rajasthan in that. So, we both are from Udaipur and to bring all those colors and places to life with our art gave us so much joy.", she said.
The duo believes that even though everyone is entitled to their likes and dislikes, the skills that keep them going are the 3 P's, passion, patience, and perseverance. And, it definitely shows in their work that showcases detail-oriented illustrations and is a blend of emotions and love. Once you have stepped into the world of Bohra Sisters, you would want to keep coming back.
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