"Costume design is not just about making actors look beautiful. It is about creating convincing characters," says Bhanu Athaiya
"Costume design is not just about making actors look beautiful. It is about creating convincing characters," says Bhanu Athaiya. If you remember the stunning Meena Kumari in Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam, the gorgeous Mumtaz in that fancy orange western draped saree, Sharmila Tagore and Sadhna in their trendy tight churidaars in Waqt, the sexy Zeenat Aman in Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Sir Ben Kingsley as Gandhi or Aamir Khan as Bhuvan in Lagaan, you will realise that Bhanu is right. The Academy Award-winning costume designer who is now releasing her film memoirs in the book, The Art of Costume Design talks to CS about her journey: 
WHO: Bhanu Athaiya
WHAT: Talking about costume drama
WHERE: At her workshop in Breach Candy
Penning it down
I must have spent more than five decades in our film industry and although everybody knows about Gandhi and my Academy Award, nobody really knows how I reached here. I grew up assisting my photographer father in Kolhapur, a city which was obsessed with cinema and art in the late 1930s. I used to watch Greta Garbo films and be fascinated with her dresses. I went on to study at the JJ School of Art and then did fashion sketches for Eve's Weekly. At the time, Indians didn't have that much access to fashion magazines and many women followed my illustrations to design clothes. Slowly, I was asked to design clothes and film actresses like Kamini Kaushal, Nargis started frequenting my boutique. I then moved on to costume designing for B R Chopra. It was Nargis who introduced me to Raj Kapoor and that's how I got my big break. The time was ripe; India was free and there was a lot of interest in experimenting with Indian outfits and Western fashion. I want to share all this film history with readers.
Drape details
I have worked with everyone from Guru Dutt to Raj Kapoor to Yash Chopra to Ashutosh Gowariker. Every filmmaker has a different approach. Raj Kapoor had larger than life characters; Guru Dutt was sensitive and had subtler characters. But my style of working hasn't changed. When I get a brief, I immediately visualise the character and sketch it. My illustrations are so detailed that the director can see clearly how the actor will look. Designing for the lead actor is easy; it is the minor charactersu00a0-- the dhobi, the barber, the servantu00a0-- that require more effort because that's what creates the mood of the film.u00a0
The whole nine yards
When Swades released, the biggest compliment for my work came from a critic who said that for the first time SRK looked the character he played. I'm good at this because I am studious. I like observing things, people, reading history, doing research. When I get the time, I just visit museums and sketch period costumes and weaponry. People praise me for the costumes of Gandhi. But my research was perfect. Some of my first sketches of the Mahatma were done when I was in school. So my research was already half-done even before I started work on Gandhi. A good costume designer is a student for life!
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