B-town actors on the red carpet

The crowd’s favourite was indie-movie star Kalki Koechlin who wore a baroque printed gown by a lesser-known but immensely talented designer called Preeti S Kapoor.

Among the men,mercifully no one went on stage in jeans. Right from Amol Palekar to Ram Kapoor to Manish Sharma to Vivek Oberoi and,yes,even Salman Khan-of-the-ripped-jeans fame,wore a nice suit.

Film actors at Indian award ceremonies are finally getting it right. In just a handful of years of fashion-policing by journalists,they have realised and optimised the power of the red carpet.

The earliest reference to the red carpet is in literature,in Aeschylus’s well-referenced play Agamemnon,written in 458 BC. Agamemnon returns from Troy and is welcomed by his vengeful wife Clytemnestra,who offers him a red-carpet to walk on,as if he were a god.

But ironically,rolling out the red carpet at film awards is just around three decades old. Until the 1970s,Hollywood studios had their red-carpet clothes designed by costume designers. When costume departments were disbanded,actors were left to buy their own clothes. The result was a series of front-page flops,Vanity Fair’s Graydon Carter wrote they dressed in “oversize this,thrift-shop that”. It was only when Giorgio Armani dressed Robert de Niro for Taxi Driver in 1976,was the power of the movies fully understood.

European fashion houses had begun to earn big money from American departmental stores. When they realised the biggest influencer in America was Hollywood,the importance of tacit celebrity endorsement began. Armani led the pack,quickly followed by Gianni Versace,Valentino and the others. Italian labels began to woo American celebrities with free dresses,especially during on the grandest red-carpet of them all — the Academy Awards. Jewellery houses like Bulgari and Harry Winston,and shoe labels like Jimmy Choo,ensued.

But the American red carpet is boring now. The Oscars are all about pretty gowns,but regardless the designer,a floor-sweeper is just that. It’s usually the annual Met Ball in New York,an immensely stylish soiree hosted by Anna Wintour,where the best and most clever in fashion is seen. I’m hoping the Oscars this year will have some newer shapes,maybe even a few women in au courant trousers.

Indian celebrities are on the ball here. They’ve understood that red-carpet dressing is not just about big-label designer gowns and blown-dry hair. It’s not about playing dress-up but being incredibly stylish. It’s understanding that chic lies in dressing with emotion and savoir faire,and making a statement.

This is why we fell in love with Vidya Balan and her cascading Kanjeevarams. The first time she showed off her new dress code was at the Star Screen awards last year.

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