Costumes are undoubtedly the most striking feature of every Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie. With the trailer of his latest movie Padmavati out, fashionistas have gone berserk over the costumes and ornaments worn by actors Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor. The movie is scheduled for release on December 1.
A Bhansali movie is always resplendent with extravagant, high-profile, multi-coloured costumes and Bollywood enthusiasts have already pitched Padmavati as bigger than all previous Bhansali movies.
It took many years of work by thousands of people to design and develop the costumes and ornaments for Padmavati, a story which is set in AD 13 and 14 centuries. The costume designing was done by renowned designers Rimple and Harpreet Nerula.
Rimple and Harpreet said that designing the costumes for the movie was a challenging task since there are no authentic records about the costumes of those times. The duo relied upon the artifacts in the museums in Jaipur and Ahmedabad and studied paintings, travelogues and history books about the period to design the accessories.
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Organic tradition
In an attempt to recreate the style and trend of those times, the designers have made gauzy costumes. All the fabrics used are organic—like chanderi, kota, raw silk and mal. The designing involved no machine work and all embroidery were handmade. Vegetable dye and hand-dye were used to give colours. Costumes were mostly fashioned in traditional gota and zardosi works. Ethnic designs of Rajasthan and architectural designs were used to adorn the borders of costumes.
Deepika Padukone, who plays the titular role, wear heavily embellished sarees decorated with elaborate embellishments and embroidery. Borders of dupattas were given traditional works. Jacket-style, knee-length kurtas in silk and brocade were designed for Shahid Kapoor, who plays the Maharaja in the movie. It took four months to couture these costumes. Colours that give royal grandeur such as scarlet, beige, gold, green and ivory were used for Shahid Kapoor’s attire.
Ranveer Singh, who portrays Alauddin Khalji in the movie, uses fur clothing mostly. Chikankari kurtas and embellished shawls with deep colours make Ranveer’s dresses more special.
400 kg of gold
Ornaments of the Rajputana times were designed and made by 200 craftsmen, taking as many as 600 days. A total of 400 kilograms of gold was used for this. The making of jewellery for the film has been detailed in a video released by Tanishq Jewellery. Tanishq has already launched the sales of the Padmavati collection of jewellery that are replicas of the ornaments bejeweled by Deepika in the movie.
Heavy jewellery were designed for Deepika. She wears layered ornaments with large designs—from armlets and anklets up to the forehead. Most of these are gold and kundan works. On the nose, Deepika wears a ring with spectrum rings that are bold and stylish.
Once the film is released, Deepika’s ornaments, lehengas and sarees as well as Shahid’s embellished kurtas and Ranveer’s fur-coats will become trendsetters—or so claim the designers.
(This article was originally published in Malayala Manorama on October 19, 2017)
