Ordinary outfits seldom create history. Perhaps that is one reason why film-maker Rakesh Roshan made sure that he is involved in each and every step of the costume-making process of his upcoming film,Krrish 3. The director gave a lot of creative liberty to the costume designers of the film,in order to come up with unique looks for Kaal and Kaya,played by Vivek Oberoi and Kangana Ranaut respectively. No wonder,their looks created a lot of curiosity before it was officially unveiled. Designer Gavin Miguel,who is known for his out-of-the-box designs in films like Naach was roped in by the film-maker to create unique looks for the two actors.
Close on Batman’s heels
Miguel mentioned that he became a part of the project pretty late and started working on Ranaut’s look as soon as he came on board. “I was told that Kaya is a mutant with a svelte side to her personality. So I made a few sketches and he immediately gave it a nod,” stated Miguel. Roshan wanted the outfit to be light and flexible,to make sure that Ranaut does all her stunts without any restrictions. “She has a lot of toughness in her personality. So instead of looking at feminine superheroes for reference,I looked at Batman. We wanted the outfit to maintain a balance of strength meets femininity,so that even if there is an emotional scene,a streak of toughness is still maintained. Miguel stayed away from using the usual black and red colour palette,which is usually associated with such characters. “We decided to venture into more interesting colours like electric gray,silver and black with metallic shades.
Rubbery tales
To get the right fabric for her costume,Miguel experimented with different fabrics like four way stretch,a mix of polythene stretch among others. Not happy with the result,he ultimately chose rubber and latex. “Kaya’s costume looks like a second skin. Hence,rubber and latex turned out to be the best options. We sourced the material from dealers in UK,USA and Hong Kong. My team members helped out by getting swatches of the fabrics for test. Keeping in mind the climatic conditions,we chose a more refined version of the fabric,” added Miguel. After purchasing the material,it had to undergo color treatments.
Kaya’s costume mania
Kangana Ranaut’s outfit weighed 20 kilograms.
After shooting under the harsh sunlight,she had to remove the costume and keep it in a dark AC room with a low temperature,to make sure that the material doesn’t melt.
As rubber cannot be altered to fit into various sizes at a later stage,her costume was made in several sizes. Each outfit had a difference of half an inch,to make sure that she fits into Kaya’s costume,irrespective of her weight gain or loss during the filming.
Special grungy heels,complete with spikes and studs,were attached to her costume to create an illusion of Kaya standing on her toes.
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In order to keep the outfit clutter free and clean,the only accessory that Kaya sports in the film is a belt. Instead,the focus is kept on her nails,with two-toned colours and metallic finish tips,as she has a lot of hand movements in the fight sequences.
Kangana required a minimum of 3.5 hours everyday to get dressed. A fine treatment,lacquered oil and special powder was used to help her slip into the costume and at the same time,protect the costume from dust. The entire suit was also oiled from the exterior to give it a full polished and shiny feel.
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A special session was organised before the shoot,where a team from the US scanned all the costumes. The designers had to put together all the outfits in a stipulated time and the team would scan them to see how it looks on each of the character sketches on the computer.
Romantic dreams
Kaya’s wardrobe goes for a makeover in the romantic dream number,Dil tu hi bata. Her outfits in the song are a blend of edginess and femininity. The designer had to maintain the balance to avoid losing her personality. The outfits are a little edgy when compared to the flowy garments that you see in other dream sequences. The colour palette used was a mix of gold,red,black and white. Streaks of amethyst hues,which comes from the family of colors that is used for her main costume (electric gray),were also added to her outfit.
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The idea behind Kaya’s make up was to avoid making her look like a typical alien with strong eyes and dark make up. It was decided to drop the idea of keeping the make up bright or neutral,and eventually opted for metallic hues
A few strands of Kaya’s hair come out from the sides,with an artistic puffy bouffant on top to add an additional
dimension.
The use of a white under eye pencil adds a dramatic effect
The hair is neatly twisted on the right side,with lots of mousse and pins to hold it tight.
The metal man
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After working on Kangana’s outfits,Roshan called up Miguel right before Christmas last year and asked him to work on a unique metallic construction costume for Oberoi. “He wanted the outfit to have several metallic elements,without adding a robot-cop feel to it. We had discussions with the team,including art director Sabu Cyril. The process was similar to Kangana’s outfit,but this time,we were dealing with an outfit which had a hard base. It had a mix of metals like aluminum sheets,steel among others. The suit was put together by breaking several metals,moulding and welding the elements together. We got inputs from the martial art directors who were flown in from China to make sure that Vivek comfortably performs all the stunts,” added Miguel. As the original metal suit weighed close to 30 – 40 kgs,an additional metallic suit made of PVC and a few metal-coated fabrics was created especially for the tough fight sequences. Three – four pieces of these costumes were kept ready,which were used at different intervals of the shoot. The designer added that Hrithik Roshan also gave lots of inputs while making the eye blocks for Oberoi’s metal face cover.
priya.adivarekar@expressindia.com
