Whether it is the careless way Shah Rukh Khan dons shirts as a romantic journalist in Dil Se, the scruffy suits worn by Manoj Bajpayee in Aligarh, or both the playful elegance and imposing regality of Karisma Kapoor and Rekha’s sarees in Zubeidaa – Pia Benegal, the designer behind all these critically-acclaimed films, was not thinking of what colours suit the actors or what styles are in fashion, but envisioning how clothes can turn a character into a real person. “I study the script closely – the characters’ backstories, traumas, personalities and moods of the sequences being shown. It’s important that the costumes are not flashy but a part of storytelling and help actors feel like the character,” she reveals in a conversation ahead of a talk at Sabha Blr on April 10.
Thirty-five years into her career, she has dressed the actors of several national awardwinning films, and Aligarh (2016) starring Manoj Bajpayee comes up when she digs deeper into how a character’s inner world can show up in their clothes. She shares, “Bajpayee’s character was a depressed professor, very lonely and made to feel that he did not belong. So the colours were demure – browns, dark maroons – and I worked on his clothes to make them appear faded with time. You play with emotions through fabric and colours.” All this intentional work in costume design, she learned entirely on the go when thrown into the role for her father, Shyam Benegal’s 1991 film Antarnaad. “The budget was so tiny that he could not hire anybody to do the costumes, but he was s o m e b o d y w h o thought it was good to throw people into the deep end so they learn how to swim. This was a test for me, so even though I was a junior assistant in dir e c t i o n who did not know anything about costumes, I took it on as a challenge.” She adds, “I discovered that I loved the process of making costumes, organising, sourcing fabrics, studying every character and creating looks for them. It was a game-changer.”
Throughout her career, she was a constant collaborator of her father’s, going on to work in more of his films like Sardari Begum, Mammo, Mujib: The Making of a Nation and more. The critically-acclaimed Zubeidaa, which recently turned 25, is one among them. Starring Karisma Kapoor in the titular role of a lively young woman who becomes the second wife of a king, with Rekha playing the king’s more mature, grounded maharani, the costumes for these two were an exercise in making small elements convey a big difference. Pointing to a scene where both are dressed in the traditional red Rajput Poshak, the designer explains, “I didn’t want them twinning so there’s a slight variation in the same royal red, the embroidery too is rich in Karisma’s but not as royal as Rekha’s. You see this difference because of the difference in emotional maturity but also because the two would make different choices and the tailor would design differently for them.”
With Shyam Benegal’s passing at the age of 90 in 2024, Pia has taken the helm at Sahyadri Films, planning to foray into production. This doesn’t mean she’s giving up design though, as she recently worked on Hansal Mehta’s Gandhi. “I wanted my father’s company to stay alive as long as I am,” shares the 61-year-old. Through it all, some lessons she learnt from decades working alongside her father are acting as her guiding light, as she adds, “He was truly a terrific friend and a gentle person. As a director, he always said to keep the people you are working with close, like family. He never thought he was more special and allowed them to offer their own ideas – I try to do this as well.