5 min readMumbaiJun 21, 2013 12:37 PM IST
Vidya Balan’s look in Rajkumar Gupta’s directorial venture Ghanchakkar,has created a lot of curiosity about her character. Balan is seen wearing loud and bright apparel,not only in the film,but also at several promotional events. She plays Neetu Bhatia,a Punjabi housewife with a quirky fashion sense. The task of creating a weird and colourful look for her was assigned to designer Subarna Ray Chaudhuri,who had styled Vidya Balan in her debut film Parineeta. Vidya Balan’s outfits in the film are a mix-and-match of everything that one can find at local street shops. Her character in the film likes to follow trends,and buys old fashion magazines in bulk from the paper mart. She loves to shop,but can’t afford to buy high-end luxury brands. Instead,she takes inspiration from popular actresses,models and asks her tailor to stitch clothes that are similar to the ones worn by them.
Creating the look
In the promos,one can see Vidya Balan dressed up in outfits which are neither classy nor tacky. “The brief given to me by Gupta was that Vidya’s character in the film is that of a middle class housewife,who leads a dull life with a lazy husband around. Colourful and fun outfits keep her happy. What she wears is a bad copy of the current trends,because the tailors end up tweaking her clothes in their own style,” said Chaudhuri. Gupta had instructed her to avoid thinking about how the audience will react to Vidya Balan’s outfits. “It was a big risk. As a designer,one can come up with stylish looks. But mixing up a variety of prints and colours,and still managing to make the actress look good is difficult. I love how Vidya has managed to pull off all the outfits,” added Chaudhuri.
The ‘friend’ connect
Chaudhuri’s main inspiration for Vidya Balan’s look was a friend’s wife from Delhi,who loves teaming up different prints and colours together. “My friend’s wife Guneet loves wearing quirky outfits. I have seen her carry off bright and neon hues with leopard prints. I’ve also come across many middle aged Punjabi women,who love pairing up multiple accessories with slogan tees and floral bell-bottoms,” said Chaudhuri,who adds that she took photographs of women wearing quirky outfits for reference. A lot of clothes used in the film were sourced apparel and accessories from local shops selling export goods.
A stylish cocktail
Vidya sports a variety of clothes and accessories in the film,which includes kiddie earrings,hair-clips,t-shirts with smileys,dresses in psychedelic prints,and shoes with cartoon designs. Be it a Bollywood inspired tunic top or earrings in the shape of a t-shirt,one can notice the blend of several elements in one outfit. “If I had to describe Neetu’s fashion sense,the word for it would be cocktail. She tries to follow the trend,but what she wears is her personal interpretation,” mentioned Chaudhuri.
Did Dolly Bindra inspire her look?
Chaudhuri dismissed all rumours surrounding Vidya’s look in the film,including reality show star Dolly Bindra being one of the inspirations behind her kitschy outfits. “It’s impossible for me to use Dolly Bindra’s style as a reference for Vidya’s character Neetu in the film. She does not fall in the same age bracket as Bindra. It is Neetu’s funny,child-like behaviour that reflects in all her outfits,” she states.
(priya.adivarekar@expressindia.com)
Going dotty over Emraan
While Emraan Hashmi’s look in Ghanchakkar is quite plain, there is one costume of his that’s grabbing all the attention — the red polka dotted night suit that he’s shown wearing in the promos. “I had seen this red polka dotted suit at a friend’s ‘70s themed party. So when the director Raj Kumar Gupta,asked me to design a night suit for Emraan’s character in the film,all I could think about is this retro costume I saw at the party,” says fashion designer Rick Roy,who has worked on Hashmi’s look in the film. The director instantly approved Roy’s suggestion,and they got thinking about how to incorporate the loud costume in the film,considering Hashmi’s character was a regular guy. “We thought of introducing a scene,where Neetu (Balan) is gifts this suit to Sanjay (Hashmi) and convinces him to wear it,”reveals Roy.
Interestingly,in the film Hashmi is seen wearing faded,worn out T-shirts throughout the film. His faded looking clothes are a result of his wife,Neetu’s negligence,who cares two hoots about the house chores. She often leaves the laundry unattended. Roy used bleach in which he soaked T-shirts for a particular period to get the washed out look for Hashmi’s outfits in the film.
(Onkar Kulkarni)
