All that glitters is gold...

 Three designs were chosen out of over 20 designs through an in-house design competition held at the Tanishq design studios. People across the country were asked to cast their votes on one of the three designs to pick out the design that would eventually be manufactured. Goldplus Nano1 received 2,02,493 votes, the maximum number of votes, out of the 5,28,196 votes that were cast. The votes were cast through SMSes and calls. People also voted in the outlets and on the official website. A month-long campaign was launched in November 2010 as part of Goldplus’ initiative to celebrate 5000 years of Indian jewellery. The maximum number of votes were cast in Tamil Nadu followed by Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Speaking on the occasion, Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director of Titan Industries, said, “The acquisition of gold is a national habit and the Nano is a symbol of pride. It is the culmination of these two ideas that led to the creation of the Goldplus Nano.”
Popular Kannada actress Jennifer Kotwal was also present at the unveiling of the winning design. Deeksha Shetty, Saravanan V, Bhaskar A, Karthick Kumar and Navnit Anvekar were a part of winning team. “The design is a kaleidoscope of Indian jewellery motifs. It is a convergence of jewellery techniques from all over the country. From the marvellous Meenakari to the charismatic Kundan, the car has it all.”

They also said that it took them two months to come up with the design and that it was an exciting experience as they worked in collaboration with engineers.

C K Venkataraman, COO, jewellery division, Titan Industries, said, “Only the outer surface of the car is going have a gold cladding. One car will first be manufactured and it is not going to be on sale. This car will then travel to each of the Goldplus outlets in the country. We are hoping to launch the car around April-May of next year. The cost of making the car has still not been estimated but it should be around a few crores.”

Prizes worth forty lakh, including 100 gold coins, 25 gold pendants, key chains, calendars and t-shirts, will soon be announced for the voters.