In an exclusive conversation with ETimes, the ace costume designer opened up on how designing has evolved over the years, working with Samantha for her upcoming film ‘Shaakuntalam’ and how she saved Sam from a serious flower allergy. Read on…
Over the years, the audience has seen Shakuntala’s character being depicted in a typical white saree and a sleeveless blouse with a white ‘gajra’. What is special about Samantha’s costume in ‘Shaakuntalam’?
What we have done to bring out the characterisation of Shakuntala is special. We’ve kept in mind the image or the vision of Shakuntala that a lot of the older generation or millennials might have seen in comics or in films. But we’ve created a newness with the use of colourful flowers. We’ve worked on the vision that came to the table with our actor Samantha. There are slight differences to our look when compared to the traditional portrayal, which has been done to make it very accessible, as a memory and a vision to Gen Z, Gen X and millennial audiences. I think that’s predominantly been the effort to create something slightly different in terms of the Shakuntala look.
Did your job become easier having Samantha to model the look on?
Samantha made it very easy with the fact that she’s got great carriage. She’s been so cooperative and she moulded herself into each garment so beautifully. It was a delight to work with her.
Reportedly, Samantha continued shooting despite developing rashes due to the jewelry. How was that issue tackled?
Certain flowers created an allergy on her skin. So what we did was, we lined the flowers and weaved them with fabric from the inside. That was the technique that I had to apply so that the flowers didn’t touch her skin.
What were the major challenges that you faced while working on this project?
I don’t think it was difficult. It was a beautiful journey. And we all constantly worked on a singular vision. So bringing the visual to life was a beautiful journey. It was exciting to be able to create what we did for the film. If one considers it as a challenge, it may look like a difficult task, but if one considers it to be an enjoyable journey, everything becomes wonderful. And honestly, with the kind of work that I’ve done in my career, these kinds of challenges now seem like beautiful journies and I enjoy them.
Did you get any new learnings from this project?
I learned a lot about flowers. We had real flowers and we had certain flowers that were flown down from various cities and even from outside of the country. Remarkably, I still don’t remember the names of a few flowers that we use. My assistants, who were handling flowers used to keep telling me, ‘Ma’am this is called this’. I would say, ‘Bring that pink flower’. They used to laugh at me because I would hardly remember the names. Despite that, it was fun.
Actors say comfort matters to them more than style. As a designer, how far do you agree with that?
As a costume technician, for me, it is first the look of the character. It is first the characterisation and bringing that particular vision of the director to life. Then within that I focus on how am I to make that comfortable for the actor who is playing that part. Knowing the structure of the actor, the stance, the comfort level, how they walk, all those things are very important.
You have worked on films like ‘Bal Gandharva’, ‘Devdas’, ‘Taal’ and many more. But with so many period films releasing these days, any costume from any film that has been your personal favourite?
I feel that everybody is working on their visuals, and their vision, and trying to keep it as appropriate as possible. For me, I think every challenge from the past was unique and it’s not fair to categorise them into one visual. However, if I talk about films of the past, I would say Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor’s iconic look from the 1963 movie) has left an indelible mark in my mind with the gold outfit. That has inspired me in a lot of ways in my films. Even today, a lot of the directors I work with, say no film is complete if Neeta Lulla hasn’t given it a golden outfit. Cleopatra has truly inspired me.
What is that one thing that makes a costume designer’s job easy?
A correct and proper narrative by the director.
Over the years, how has the process of costume design in filmmaking evolved? Has it changed at all?
I think what has changed is the fact that now there are a lot of avenues to make your costume design easier. There’s more choice and availability of shoes, jewellery and fabrics. Design inspirations are available at the press of one button on Instagram. But all this wasn’t available a few years ago. Even to do research, one had to run to the library to be able to get what is coming up in the West. To keep up with international trends one had to go to the library and find a magazine that was about 6 months old or 2 months old. And then we had to get inspired by the vision of what the director would say. But even then, directors never gave you a script. This is why you need a script. They would tell us, ‘Tomorrow I’m shooting for a scene and I need one outfit. This colour outfit’. That has changed now, people are taking costuming more seriously. Costume designers are being made more inclusive in the system of creating the look of the film. Today people call me a costume technician in the industry because of the kind of techniques of costume that I bring to the table. I’m very hands-on when I am on set. If there’s something that is required I can immediately make it because of my cutting techniques or stitching techniques. Looking back, a lot of things have changed, but at the same time, a lot of things have remained constant, as well.
