Toughest Bollywood outfits!

Draped Bengali-style, it was fully embroidered and very heavy. We also had to give it a lot of pleats so her movements would not be restricted.

What was tough is that it would come to us for repairs every night, after the shoot. The shoot would resume at 8 am the next morning so, within 7 or 8 hours, we had to re-starch the sari, re-polish and repair it.

That was the most difficult and monotonous job we did, which went on for 15 days. We even had to fix the jewellery — in case something would break or the earrings would fall off and get lost. Ultimately, it all paid off. I won a National Award for this.

I saw Aishwarya’s sari in this song for the first time on the sets. And, thanks to director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, her and Madhuri’s saris matched. He gets all credit for briefing Neeta Lulla (Ash’s designer) and me so well.

Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon is about a village girl (Antara Mali) and her transition to a glamorous actress. So, we had to source out fabric worn in villages, but had to make them in Mumbai.
I used to literally shop off the streets. Every Thursday, I would go to the Santa Cruz (in North West Mumbai) market, Mohammed Ali Road (in South Mumbai) and some mohallas to get the cheapest fabric. I even picked up accessories like bindis for Rs 5 !

Another tough part was her transition. If she were to wear spaghetti tops after becoming an actress, it would look odd. At the same time, we wanted her to have star quality. So, we gave her pleated skirts and shirts. They didn’t look completely right — in the sense that a glamorous city girl may not wear them — but it went with her character.

Antara had a lot of creative inputs. She knew exactly what her look should be, down to the colour of her ribbons. She didn’t want her ribbons to match.

As Samay was a very black-grey kind of film, Sushmita Sen, the diva, had to be projected in a subtle manner. She was playing an investigative officer, and wearing mostly men’s clothing. Yet, we had to make sure she didn’t look boisterous, as she was also playing a mother. She needed to have a soft, gentle look.
Giving her the right clothes was difficult because we had to deglamourise her. But she would end up looking glamorous even if she wore a plain white shirt.

Sushmita underplayed her make-up and kept her hairstyle simple. She also preferred a man’s wristwatch. She thought that would make a difference, as her hands would be feminine, yet look tough.

The toughest part of Samay was designing an outfit for the item number, Laila laila. My mind was set on browns and blacks, and suddenly I had to glamorise this new dancer.

In Khamosh, Shilpa had only one song. She wore an emerald green harem outfit. First, we thought we would use emerald with bronze and gold coins. She loves natural colours and animal prints, and almost immediately associated green with nature. We wanted a touch of animal prints too, and came up with peacock feathers. It didn’t work though. Ultimately, we just put some in her hair.

There was a song in Garv, where we needed to get three different animal print changes. The first was a leopard print, the second a zebra print and the third — which was edited out — a tiger print. Ever since Shilpa wore a leopard print in Chura ke dil mera, she tries to wear animal prints in most of her films. It’s difficult designing animal prints. They can either make you look like a caricature — like you’re in a fancy dress — or make you look sensual. Shilpa loves to experiment, and she’s so confidant doing it that she never sticks out like a sore thumb.

I’ve known Priyanka Chopra since before she was crowned Miss World.
She has inputs in every garment, and she has to see every outfit she is going to wear. She knows what complements her and what doesn’t.

For the Stardust awards, Priyanka was abroad and I had to show her the outfit via MMS. I wanted her to wear a lot of jewellery, but she didn’t. So, she just wore earrings, but it looked perfect!

One thing I’ve noticed about Priyanka is that, in all her stage shows, she will always wear a maang tikka. Even while wearing Western outfits. It’s not superstition, she just loves wearing one.