HYDERABAD: “It is interesting to see when big stars surrender to the concept of costume design in films”, multiple National Award-winning costume designer and actress Dolly Ahluwalia stated in an on stage conversation with theatre revivalist Mohammad Ali Baig in Taj Vivanta in the city on Friday evening.
The session was ‘Full Circle’ conducted as part of a part of Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Foundation’s ‘Celebrating Theatre’ series that had in past brought in stalwarts of theatre and cinema to town. Narrating interesting anecdotes from her illustrious career of international films like Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen, Deepa Mehta’s Water and Midnight’s Children and Rakesh Omprakash Mehra’s Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and recently Vishal Bharadwaj’s Haider, she shared how Saif Ali Khan had his own ideas of ‘Shakespearean costumes’ for Omkara. But when she presented her sketches and swatches of designs that she had created, he slowly came around. Similarly, Priyanka Chopra with all her glamorous image had to be convinced to dress like a chawl-girl in Kaminey.
Robin Das, the famous costume designer in theatre had designed huge masks and costumes for her in an NSD Repertory production of ‘Macbeth’ where she played one of the witches. And the actors could barely see each other on stage, or even breathe. And one of them actually fell in the orchestra pit. Talking of theatre, she said, it was Ebrahim Alkazi who she owes her career to, besides her father who persuaded her to take up theatre when she was tempted to be an air hostess like her sister. When Baig asked her about her process of preparation, both as an actor and costume designer, she mentioned that she sticks to the basic brief from the director but gets in her own innovations, without either stepping on to the director’s toes or letting the director tread into her creative space. She also cautioned the large number of fashion design institute’s students and theatre enthusiasts present that costume designing is not all glamour but a lot of labour, like she had to walk kilometers with costumes in 50 Degrees Celsius in the ravines of Uttar Pradesh to shoot Bandit Queen and work in -22 Degrees Celsius in Kashmir for Haider.
In response to Baig’s other interesting query, she said, “Between acting and costume designing, I would prefer costume designing. Because I feel like a mother who is pregnant and enjoys the labour.” Amongst cinema, television, and theatre, she said that theatre is where her heart lies.