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Journalism of Courage
Bollywood films are known for their lavish wardrobes with filmmakers investing a significant budget in the film’s sartorial choices. However, director Hrishikesh Mukherjee was not one of them. The veteran director was known for making his movies on a budget and not sparing much thought on clothes.
@pinkpaisley3, shared stills from these movies and wrote, “Sustainability in old hindi movies. Watched some of my favorite Hrishikesh Mukherjee movies this past weekend. Couldn’t help but notice this one men’s silk robe that kept making an appearance over and over again. Om Prakash in Chupke Chupke”.
This interesting thread soon gathered hundreds of likes. Commenting on this post, a Twitter user wrote, “Nice investigative work! Hrishikesh Mukherjee was famously thrifty – used his own home & garden in many films Often had actors use their own clothes – the fancy saris in Abhiman were Jaya’s trousseau saris Having been an editor was also precise in shooting with little wastage”.
Another person said, “Once Amitabh turned up for a shoot in his kurta/pajama & asked Hrishikesh M that he was ready & would like to change into the designated costume. Hrishikesh stared at him for a min & said what he was wearing was perfectly fine & proceeded to carry on with the filming. :)”.
https://twitter.com/akihsur/status/1582947332756475905
Veteran actor Asrani told news agency PTI in 2017 that due to budgetary restrictions, the costume department in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s films would repeat clothes from previous films.
Another example of Mukherjee’s frugality was his reluctance to waste film stock. In his book The World of Hrishikesh Mukherjee, writer Jai Arjun Singh mentions that during the shoot of Rang Birangi, Mukherjee dismissed actor Deepti Naval’s request for a retake by saying that she will have to pay for the extra footage of the retake.
Mukherjee, who was honoured with the Dada Saheb Phalke Award and the Padma Vibhushan, died in 2006 at the age of 83.
