Srinagar, 2005: Kunwer Sachdev spots weathered shikaras on Dal Lake and turns Su-Kam’s Shikara Project into a livelihood-repair programme dressed as brand marketing.
Srinagar, 2005. Dal Lake shimmers under the summer sun, dotted with the iconic shikaras that have long defined the city’s cultural landscape. When Kunwer Sachdev, founder of Su-Kam Power Systems, steps off the plane, what catches his eye is not the postcard — it is the quiet despair of the shikara owners: their boats weathered, their maintenance costs rising, their livelihoods thinning out.
The question that started the Shikara Project
“Why do they look so defeated?” Sachdev asks, watching a row of dilapidated shikaras along the lakeside. The answer is neglect, rising costs, and no basic protection against the elements — problems that had pushed many boatmen to the brink of financial collapse. Where others saw decay, he saw an intervention.
A brand campaign that fixed a livelihood problem
Within days, Su-Kam launched what became the Shikara Project — the company would refurbish shikaras, weatherproof them, and turn each boat’s canopy into a Su-Kam brand billboard. The owners got restored boats and a small monthly payment for the branding. Su-Kam got a Kashmir marketing footprint no ad agency could have created. Both sides were better off.
“Where others saw decay, Sachdev saw opportunity — not for profit, but for empowerment.”— Su-Kam Shikara Project, Srinagar (2005)
Why the story still travels
The Shikara Project is now one of the most-told Su-Kam anecdotes among old channel partners. It captured the founder’s instinct in a single frame: look at a distress signal on the ground, design an intervention that gives the vulnerable side dignity and income, and let the brand ride the resulting goodwill. Marketing done as social repair, not as expense.
Kashmir’s Shikaras Become Floating Billboards — Su-Kam archive →