Vintage Blend

A lesson that stood her in good stead while working with a visionary like Motwane. “His perception of Varun and Pakhi (the characters played by Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha) was not filmi. He wanted the characters to look real and straight out of the ’50s. He kept telling me,‘I don’t want typical Bollywood flamboyance,nothing gaudy’,”

recalls Chaudhuri.

For her research,she decided not to rely on the internet. “Google will only give you information on movies of the era. But we wanted to make it real,” she says. Chaudhuri turned to Mahtab and her historian husband PC Mahtab,from the erstwhile zamindar lineage of Bardhaman Rajbari or Burdwan for help. “I also visited other zamindar families,saw their albums,portraits and referenced what the older generations wore,” says Chaudhuri,who rummaged through the winterwear collections of relatives and friends. She even took an old jacket of her father’s,altered it and dressed one of the supporting cast members in it.

“I sourced vintage jewelled tie-pins,cuff-links and enamelled saree pins that were worn in that era from an antique shop in New Market,Kolkata,” says Chaudhuri. Frequent trips to the city yielded Bengali handlooms,tant saris,Dhaniakhali,Dhakai,Bhagalpuri and matka silk saris. “I discovered that in the 1950s,due to the British influence,they had georgette yardage,which younger women used as sari bases to stitch delicate borders on. I’ve used georgette saris with crochet borders for Sonakshi. All her saris are teamed with high back blouses with elbow-length sleeves,” says Chaudhuri. Singh’s character was given high-waisted pants,muted colours,shirts with pockets and inverted pleats.

Motwane wanted the clothes to look naturally aged,so a stringent aging process was undertaken. “After they were stitched,instead of sending them to a laundry,we sent the clothes to the dhobi ghaat for a wash. This process leads to wear-and-tear and gives clothes a home-washed look. They were washed several times and we also used bleach in different concentrations and tea liquor to age them,” she says. Motwane’s strict “no ironing” dictat meant Singh’s costumes were washed,dried on a hanger and given to him to wear. “Even Sonakshi’s saris had to look worn and naturally crumpled,” says Chaudhuri. Apart from the painstaking preparation,what will also stay with Chaudhuri were the challenges that the unit faced. She recalls an incident when she and her assistant were buried under four feet of snow in Dalhousie and were rescued by local shopkeepers. Treacherous treks to the location through snow only added to the overall experience,she says.

Having worked on Parineeta,Eklavya,Lootera and the forthcoming Gunday (set in ’80s Kolkata),does she worry about being typecast as a period specialist? “I definitely don’t want to be known as the Kolkata specialist. Eklavya was based in Rajasthan,and I can research on other regions too,” she says.

While her recent release Ghanchakkar,with its over-the-top costumes,was a departure from her usual style,Gunday promises to be a film to watch out for. “Working on a period film gives me pleasure. I consciously pick projects which allow me to research a certain era and delve into the past,” she says.