When stylist Niharika Khan was approached to style for The Dirty Picture (TDP), she was not sure. ?The executive producer kept saying it is a small-budget, woman-oriented film and I didn?t know if they were offering me the film or dissuading me from doing it,? laughs the stylist whose work for TDP has brought her instant attention and recognition.
But Khan feels that the achievement truly sank in when she was nominated (with Moiz Kapadia who styled for TDP?s secondary cast) in the recently-introduced Best Costume category at the 18th Annual Colors Screen Awards. ?It proves that the industry is realising the importance of costumes. The right costumes help realise the characters, especially in a period film.?
Incidentally, in a country that got its first Oscar Award for costume design ? Bhanu Athaiya won it for the 1982 film Gandhi ? costumes have been treated as mere accessories for far too long. Till many decades, the focus was to make the hero and heroine look glamourous. But that has been constantly changing over the last few years. ?You can?t deny the fact that costumes are an integral part of the film today. Look at Dil Chahta Hai, for instance. They established the characters and their backgrounds and at the same time, altered the way stars looked on screen ? it brought smart casual dressing under the spotlight,? points out designer Narendra Kumar Ahmed who styled for Madhur Bhandarkar?s film Fashion.
Bollywood being India?s biggest fashion stylist, film costumes have quickly translated into retail wishlists. Movie looks have spelt brisk business time and again ?Rani Mukherji?s kitschy kurti-salwars in Bunty aur Babli, Kareena Kapoor?s harem pants in Jab We Met, Anushka Sharma?s patialas in Band Baaja Baaraat. Sonam Kapoor is now a much cited instance of how styling can sometimes do better than an actor herself. Her ensembles in Aisha had more recall value than anything else.
Despite common perception that fashion styling requires glamourous outfits, costumes in a film need more than a quick assimilation of a trendy wardrobe. They require indepth research of the character and the context the actor is shown in. So while Khan spent close to five months studying the looks of the ?80s films of South India for TDP, Loveleen Bains used her travel experience and discussions with the director Pankaj Kapur for Sonam Kapoor?s four distinct looks in Mausam, thereby earning a nomination alongside Khan at the Screen Awards.
Also in the fray are Jaimal Odedra for Patiala House, Anaita Adajania-Shroff for Ra.One and Aarti Patkar for Yeh Saali Zindagi. While Adajania-Shroff has bagged the nomination for styling Shah Rukh Khan as the curly-haired Shekhar Subramanium as well as the mohawked G.One (the superhero costume was designed by American specialists), Patkar finds herself on the list for keeping the costumes simple and true to the characters.
