People in Karnataka have a unique way of showering their love and affection on cinema and their superstars — by buying gold bars and coins with their faces or names imprinted on them.
Bullion bars or coins are usually the most widely chosen form of investment and jewellers in Karnataka have found an increasing trend of people buying gold and silver items with the images of superstar Puneeth Rajkumar, actor Yash, or just the letters KGF (after the film franchise KGF) embossed on them. Puneeth Rajkumar, or Appu as he is fondly called by his fans, passed away on October 29 last year, and the multilingual film series KGF starring Yash has been a superhit.
Gold merchants tell News18 that this trend has been increasing steadily post Akshaya Tritiya— an auspicious occasion when people are known to buy jewellery with the aim of bringing in prosperity. Gold markets indicated a 20 per cent rise in sales on that day.
Explaining this new trend, B Ramachari, general secretary of the Karnataka State Jewellers Federation, said that people who are very serious about investing in gold buy plain gold bars and coins. It is the die-hard Puneeth and Yash fans who are buying this new range of gold and silver coins, he said.
“People have been buying gold coins and bars with goddess Lakshmi on them as well. But this trend of KGF and Appu is growing as well. Gold coins that are five to 10g in weight and silver ranging between 10 and 20g are the most popular choices this season,” said Ramachari.
The trend has caught on this year as business has slowly been picking up after the two-year pandemic lull. The maximum demand for these coins has been in the Old Mysore region, Bengaluru city, and around parts of Kolar. The trend to etch Puneeth’s face on silver coins began soon after his death. Jewellers also started offering coins inscribed with the late actor’s photo to customers.
Interestingly, the jewellers’ association has also seen a shift in customers’ choices. People have begun investing more in bars and coins rather than jewellery itself.
“The pandemic certainly created a pan-economy slowdown and this uncertainty has led people to invest in bullion rather than jewellery. The gold rate has also been quite volatile and so people prefer to buy gold bars purely as an investment,” said Ramachari.
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