AnikaChowdhury In this video, British-Bangladeshi prop maker Anika Chowdhury reveals the inspiration behind Glowborne — a handcrafted, glow-in-the-dark chess set that blends culture, identity, and heritage into one of the world’s most iconic games. Glowborne isn’t just a game — it’s a limited collector’s edition launching on Kickstarter this October, with every piece sculpted, cast, and painted by hand. Inspired by Bengali kings, Arab knights, Black queens, and Indian bishops, it’s a celebration of representation on the chessboard. #AnikaChowdhury #Glowborne
00:00yes so growing up i loved fantasy worlds and games but i rarely saw faces like mine
00:12in the western world and and even though south asians do appear in bollywood it's less common
00:21in western fantasy and i wanted to bring heritage into the chessboard through craft because
00:31chess originated in india and it spread through arabia and then it came to north africa before it
00:40was westernized and into the european mold so i kind of wanted to work on this project to put the
00:50hidden and forgotten origins of chess back onto the board
00:56yeah so first it started off by like the design character design designing the characters for
01:05the lineup and of course i had to have bengali kings and pawns um to show that we could be at the
01:12beginning and the end of the story and we can be leaders and followers as well and i made the indians
01:20bishops with bindis because of course chess originated in india and the arabs um the knights are arabs so
01:31that's also hinting to the arabian roots of chess and the queens are african and then i went on to
01:41sculpting using the skills that i use in crop making in the film industry and also model making
01:48what i trained in what i trained in at the national film and television school so the characters were
01:53designed and sculpted then they were casting resin painted and all the
02:02motifs inspired by south asian pattern work were filled with glowing the dark pigment
02:09it's so got the characters glow both literally but also metaphorically as a chance for them to glow on stage
02:19well chess is one of the most oldest most iconic and recognized games it's so universal and i wanted to put the
02:32heritage twist on it to show that like it's a cultural pride on identity visibility belonging thing for south
02:41asian and eastern african communities but also for everybody else is to show that heritage can exist
02:49well as i mentioned chess did originate in india and um it's the world's most iconic board
03:05so it was a no-brainer to use that as a platform to showcase the characters that
03:11are so underrepresented especially in the western fantasy world
03:19that fantasy doesn't need to fit into the western mold to tell a great story and
03:29that south asian middle eastern african stories are super interesting and they can really like
03:41change something so traditional to make it more meaningful and take it back to original roots
03:48which have been long forgotten
03:50so i am hoping for
03:58the main communities are the south asian and eastern communities
04:06for cultural visibility identity pride it's like a celebration through art and storytelling
04:11i do want it to reach them so that they can feel joy through it and connect with it and also
04:18i'm hoping for it to reach chess communities who appreciate the game in general the design
04:26cited things the storytelling and craftsmanship that went into it so yeah i'm hoping that it connects
04:34and reaches right people
04:36yeah i'm a prop maker in the film industry which means i basically help sculpt and paint hand props that actors interact with in the film and so yeah it's my absolute like passion and dream and i'm constantly surrounded by like western stories and fantasies
05:00and fantasies but this is a very personal project that I created after hours in the evenings and
05:06on the weekends because it just comes down to representation and identity and I felt like
05:14I felt like I found my artistic voice because a lot of South Asians don't end up in the
05:23creative arts they go down a more traditional route and so I wanted to use like my artistic side
05:32to create something not just beautiful but also very meaningful
05:37absolutely this is just the beginning because I want this to be the proof of concept before
05:49I work on more projects that blend craft and culture and fuse heritage with art and storytelling
05:57I have so many ideas so I can't wait to work on more creative projects next year but this
06:06is the one that I'm focusing on right now for the launch in October
06:09oh my god I mean new beginnings um visibility comes to your pride um it's very exciting because
06:23I finally feel like I'm using my true authentic voice and being seen um because it's not something
06:31that's just generalized to fit in and conform with everything that's already out there
06:36and it's very different and there's no blueprint of how to do it so I'm figuring it out on my own
06:44but it's very very fun and I feel like fun like purpose
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