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Designs on films
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Manish Malhotra is all set to direct his musical, and is equally enthused by his haute couture show
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LIFE HAS been a full circle for Manish Malhotra - pręt wear, trousseau, designer jewellery and costume designing. He has even styled a restaurant, and now the fashion guru is geared up to host the Manish Malhotra Show on haute couture. But that's not all. After 14 years, over 500 films, including international flicks such as Meera Nair's Vanity Fair, and innumerable awards later, he is now set to do his own thing. "I am directing a musical with lots of dance sequences. It's a multi-starrer," he says about his untitled film that is scheduled to hit the silver screen in December.
As the recipient of the first Filmfare Award for best costume for the flick, Manish Malhotra re-wrote the ensemble script for silver screen. He did away with white shoes, multi-coloured shirts and the rest of the jazz that ruled the screens in 1980s and 90s, only to present his hero in a new cool dude avatar. Today the youth can emulate their icons with much ease, a SRK in Main Hoon Na or Saif Ali Khan from Hum Tum. If he was elementary in toning down the flamboyance for the leading man, he walked that thin line between sensuality and art for the heroines. His much talked about makeover for Karisma Kapoor in Raja Hindustani, chiffon magic for Madhuri Dixit in Dil to Pagal Hai and the current wardrobe for Rani Mukherjee in Hum Tum, again, all have found takers beyond the reel world.
"Masses always copied the filmy look. Now I have classes looking at movies as a barometer for clothes," he explains. "I make clothes according to the character. In Yuva, the middle class small town youth couldn't wear designer clothes as we had for K3G," he explains.
And it all started when he started working for the celluloid. "I wanted to work on the looks. There used to be lack of continuity, like long hair in one scene and short in the next. I faced a lot of struggle to get my point across. Bhanu Athaiya and Leena Daru were simply playing yes ma'am to the artistes' mother. I changed that. When I asked the director, what is the story of the film, everyone said `how could you ask that?' I met Sridevi when she was the most sought after actress in the South and worked with her with and the whole look thing clicked," he says. But then it took a Rangeela, which sent Urmila Matondkar soaring on the oomph quotient, for him to get noticed as the one who crafted those sizzling looks for the high priestess of glamour.
If he is working with the most beautiful faces on screen, there are more who come back to him for his to-die-for structured silhouettes. Some of his clients include Preity Zinta, Kareena Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee, and Hollywood's Sharon Stone, Van Damme and also Michael Jackson.
Internationally he has got rave reviews for his Pickadeep embroidered jeans collection modelled by none other than supermodel model Naomi Campbell. "I think Indian fashion industry is in progression. Indian culture and heritage are hot internationally. Ganesha is a rage in fashion circles all over the world," he says.
As for his new pręt line for men, Maya, that he unveiled during his recent visit at Strip, Nagarjuna Circle, Banjara Hills, "the collection is inspired by Hawaiian prints and holiday motifs. Here are dressy jackets in cotton. I have used turquoise, shells and corals for ornamentation. The shirts are structured while the pants in linen and cotton feature drawstrings. "It's basically fun clothing. It's high time men began dressing in funky turquoise and pink," he says. With Strip having quite a footfall from the Telugu film industry, here's hoping the ensemble will tone down the outrageous floral red shirts and yellow jackets fad around.
SYEDA FARIDA
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