Berger Artista: The new acrylic paints in town 

Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd (BPBL) is one of the most reputed brands in paint. It has also been a patron of arts and crafts for many years. 

Recently, it launched 'Berger Artista', the first-ever artists' acrylic paints made in Bangladesh. 

Most acrylic paints are imported and highly priced, making it difficult for Bangladeshi artists. 

Keeping this in mind, Berger launched cost-efficient and international standard acrylic paints to inspire Bangladeshi artists and help them flourish. 

Initially, Berger launched variants of seven elementary shades, as suggested to the company by Professor Nisar Hossain, dean, faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka. 

They are – Titanium White, Black, Cobalt Blue, Viridian Green, Cadmium Yellow, Yellow Ochre and Vermilion. 

According to Nisar Hossain, these seven basic shades are enough to colour a painting.  

The colours come in 120ml tubes, each costing Tk180. Most of the imported acrylic colours cost Tk230 to Tk280 per tube, so Berger Artista is relatively cheaper. 

Berger Artista is available in Modern Stationery at New Market and branches of Boi Bichitra. Besides, one can order the products from the F-Commerce page, Epilogue. 

Customers will also be able to buy them from major stationery shops in Khulna, Cumilla and Brahmanbaria.

Sayed Shorif Russel, category manager, marketing, at BPBL, said, "We are assigning new distributors and the paint will be available nationwide in no time."

Berger has been developing this product since 2019. 

"We procured all the available art paints in the market and assessed their qualities before launching our product," Russel shared with us. 

"Our R&D team, production, supply chain and marketing team worked closely to manufacture an international standard product," he added. 

Amrina Tasnim Roshni, product officer, marketing, said, "During the product development process, many Fine Arts faculties gave us their valuable feedback." 

She also informed us that they ran the demonstrations more than 20 times and when every stakeholder was satisfied with the quality, only then they launched the product. 

Along with Professor Nisar Hossain, Assistant Professor Sahid Kazi and Lecturer Goswami Bishwajit also actively participated and contributed to the development of Berger Artista. On challenges faced by the company, Russel said, "Packaging was a major issue with our existing set-up. We had to bring some changes to our production facilities." 

Currently, they are not sponsoring any exhibition or artist. But as Russel affirmed, "If we get any proposals, we will definitely look into it. We would like to interact more closely with the country's artist community." 

In Bangladesh, the market for art paints is valued at around 8 to 10 crore taka and there is huge dependency on imported products. 

Russel said, "We do not just do business in Bangladesh, we also look into the needs of the people," adding, "We believe that in future other domestic companies will also join us and together, we would be able to reduce our dependence on imported products." 

For aspiring artists and young talents, Berger Artista is a token of love from Berger. 

In the coming days, the paint industry giant will add more variants to the collection.  

Berger also wants to arrange competitions, interactive sessions and campaigns with Berger Artista in future.

Price: Tk180 (per 120ml tube)

Colours: Titanium White, Black, Cobalt Blue, Viridian Green, Cadmium Yellow, Yellow Ochre and Vermilion

Where to find: Modern Stationery, Boi Bichitra, Epilogue (F-Commerce)