KOCHI: ‘Koode’ was a dream. “Koode was my dream.” Her happiness resonates in her voice. With the film smashing the box office, there stands a woman on the sidelines who had an important role in its success. And overcoming a lot of misogyny in the male-dominated field of makeup, she sports a no-nonsense attitude.
Mitta Antony is the person behind giving the homely looks to Joshua, Jenny and Sophia in Koode. “This was my first commercial Malayalam film,” she says. “Working on it was a dream. Director Anjali Menon was entirely behind the character conception. Before the film, she told me what she wanted from me. She said she wanted real people, not dramatic characters with an over-the-top look.”
Though she was smashing a male bastion, Mitta faced no hurdles in her Malayalam debut. “Actors Prithviraj and Nazriya, and the others were really friendly and supportive,” says Mitta. “People ranging from the producer Renjith to the even the lightboys and camera assistants were really helpful.”
But life in the film industry wasn’t always easy. After completing her one-year diploma in beauty parlour management and cosmetics at the Pattanam Rasheed Makeup Academy in 2011, she hoped to make a name for herself in the industry. But what she faced was hostility in the male-dominated scene. “At the time, I learnt that women makeup artists weren’t allowed membership in any of the professional artists’ organisations. That had apparently been the practice for long,” Mitta says.
The Supreme Court order in 2014 banning the discrimination based on gender finally came as a relief to many, including Mitta, who has worked in other regional language films.
“I have mostly worked in Hindi films,” Mitta says. “I used to do special effects makeup there. I have worked in a Bhojpuri and Tamil film.”
In 2013, she was part of an international project, which was an Arabic film, in Muscat. As part of the Muziris project, she has also worked with C-DIT in the making of documentaries on Sahodaran Ayyappan, Muhammad Abdul Rahman Sahib and Paliam Palace. She has also worked in another Malayalam film Udalazham, which will soon hit the screens.
She lives in Kochi with her husband Antony, who runs their beauty parlour; daughter Christina, who is in Class XI, and son Chritson, who is in Class IX.