Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Who is the best-dressed film star in Bollywood? Amitabh Bachchan, Jackie Shroff or Shah Rukh Khan? If you chose any of these three, you8217;re wrong. Actually so is the question. The appropriate query is: Who is the best dress designer in Bollywood? Neeta Lulla who does Juhi Chawla8217;s clothes? Anna Singh who designed Sanjay Dutt? Or Sulakshanna who designs for Rekha, Madhuri and Sridevi?
While that question too cannot be answered, what is clear is that designer wear has been elevated to stratospheric levels when planning a film. Gone are the days when there were mere darzis like Maganlal Dresswala, once the only people who made clothes for Bollywood. Today, the same store that supplied clothes for the first Indian talkie, Alam Ara, rents costumes for fancy dress events and is limited to supplying clothes for extras. But not often. Today, the filmi duniya demands that even sidekicks wear designer clothes!
Feroze Shakir, Govinda8217;s regular designer too is full of praises for his clotheshorse. quot;If another star wore the clothes he can carry off, he8217;d be written off by now, but not Govinda. That8217;s why he8217;s a designer8217;s dream, you can experiment endlessly with him,quot; says Feroze.
From the designer8217;s point of view who you dress is far more important than what you design. quot;If I were to to design for both Kajol and Sushmita for a scene in the disco, I would give Kajol a mini while Sushmita would probably wear a cat-suit. And if they were to exchange clothes 8212; the result would be nothing short of a disaster,quot; he laughs.
The other disaster that designers fear is the star8217;s ego. quot;Every actor is insecure deep down. And another star8217;s popular clothes coupled withthe designers bitching amongst themselves can take its toll on creativity,quot; says Naresh Rohera, who has designed for most of the leading male stars. quot;All the designers are so busy running down each other that the scene in the industry is akin to the political scenario in Delhi. Each designer has to be Laloo personified, to survive,quot; he says. But survive they will in the sunlight. As Lulla, who has been around for over a decade, puts it, quot;As a career, it gives you job satisfaction. Cash takes a lot of time to flow but there is the fame.quot;
