Fashion designer Neeta Lulla: "Desi textiles and hand-woven fabrics are our heritage"

Fashion designer Neeta Lulla has worked on films like 'Devdas', 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' and 'Thalaivii'.

One of Bollywood’s favourite costume designers, Neeta Lulla has worked on films like Devdas, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Manikarnika and Thalaivii.

In an exclusive interview, she spoke about the hard work involved in costume design, the seriousness of the glamour world, and fashion coming of age. Excerpts:

You have won the National Film Award for Best Costume Design for 'Devdas', 'Balgandharva', 'Jodhaa Akbar', and worked for over 300 Hindi movies. What is your process when working for a Bollywood film?

Education is a must. Understanding the techniques of fashion, of garment constructions, embroideries, the history of garments in India and around the world gives you access to use fabrics and styles and also create new concepts. Understanding cuts and figure types is very important.

As far as period dramas are concerned, it comes with a lot of experience. If you are inclined towards doing costume dramas, and if you’re educated in fashion, you understand it better.

What do you have to say about the current state of the fashion industry?

It is an ever-revolving scenario. It has evolved to a place where the country has become a very fashionable place, with the younger audience buying clothes and lifestyle products that make them feel happy.

What’s happened with the pandemic is that people's introspective choices have become different style statements. Because people are working from home, their fashion quotient has had a complete shift. With this happening, the industry is also going through change - overall perspective, digital, practical and out-of-the-box approach to the kind of clothes, to the kind of fashion statements being created.

I think the seriousness of the glamour world has come of age, and today we see different perspectives creating different opportunities and different fashion statements.

You have worked with filmmakers like Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Ashutosh Gowariker - tell us about your choicest moments working on a period film.

All the work that I have done for period films - be it (with) Sanjay leela Bhansali or for Ashutosh Govarikar - have been my choicest moments of fashion. The fact is that I am working with directors who have a mind, vision and a style statement that they adhere to. The challenges are so fabulous and great, that it helps me think out of the box and create a new box for myself! I think that’s what makes it the choicest of moments.

You styled J. Jayalalithaa’s biopic 'Thalaivii' starring Kangana Ranaut recently. Tell us about your forthcoming projects and shows…

Post Thalaivii, I have worked on a film called Shakuntalam which is directed by Gunashekhar and produced by his daughter Neelima Gunashekhar. In this project I worked with actors Samantha Prabhu and Dev Mohan, and a galaxy of fabulous actors, be it Mohan Babu, be it Kabir Singh Dohan and a lot of other actors.

In terms of fashion shows, I am working on my couture collection.

Right from late Sridevi to Madhuri Dixit, Aishwarya Rai, Juhi Chawla and many others, you have worked with the top stars. What is your process as a designer?

As a designer, it is very important for me to understand the actor I am working with; their comfort levels and their own personal style statements. I create a world of fashion or characterisation of a film around that as well, because when I am working on a commercial film, it’s important for me to understand the character. When it comes to period films, it is about creating the character or look, which is spoken about or visualised and projected, then seeing who the actor is and achieving a comfort or balance of the techniques I use on the costume.

Fabrics from Banaras, Paithani , Kanjeepuram, I like to use these fabrics because it gives us a sense of our own history.

You have been vocal about combating gender-based violence, especially in your 2016 collection #SheIsMe. How and how much do you feel fashion designers can really contribute to serious issues?

As a designer, I feel glamour has a place in everybody’s lifestyles. Raising your style quotient is important for an individual, thus people who contribute to that aspect of life have a voice that can be heard.

You have showcased the intricacies and elaborateness of Maharashtra's Paithani. Tell us about your love for desi textile and handwoven fabrics.

Desi textiles and hand-woven fabrics are our heritage. The beautiful colours, weaves, craftsmanship of the various artisans who work on weaving or painting it like kalamkari embroideries of chikankari, woven fabric from Banaras, Paithani , Kanjeepuram. I like to use these fabrics because it gives us a sense of our own history, and also brings out a very exotic appeal to garments which is very true to our own culture.

The essence of using these fabrics for me is to be able to create, to be able to use these fabrics and bring out a global appeal to it by contemporising it in the way I use it on my structures or my garments and give its axis not only to Indians but also to be able to create a look which is accepted globally. So for me, it is about creating that uniqueness.

What is your take on sustainable fashion when it comes to designing for a Hindi film?

My take on sustainability is to create looks which are coordinated and there is an aspect of reusability that could come in, when styling a character or the entire film. That’s the only way we can bring sustainability in costume designing for a film. As a designer, I incorporate these measures to stay sustainable when working.

You have been teaching fashion for decades. What is most rewarding about this?

There are lots of students who have it in them to come out and shine in the world but they are shy or come from a family which is slightly conservative. When I was a faculty, I tried to boost each of the student’s confidence by trying to make up for them and styling them differently which helped and they started evolving and talking about the style which helps them to step out from their shell. Building a personality is very important. I taught each of them to be confident of who they are.

What stands out the most when you think of your work in 'Devdas' and 'Jodhaa Akbar'?

For Devdas, I travelled to Kolkata to meet with some families to understand the culture, went through books in the libraries and sourced fabrics and almost 300 saris of different weaves and amalgamated certain looks with Banarasi and Lucknowi as well.

Since the interpretation of Devdas required magnanimity and scale of visuals, I devised a pre-draped Bengali saree that was anywhere from 9-15 yards and even 18 yards.

I am glad Sanjay (Leela Bhansali) believed in the look when we did our look test. This film is the one that taught me a lot of technicalities of making millinery and working with the metal armoury. The visual grandiosity demanded lots of characters in a scene and lots of garments to be detailed and styled. To dress every actor my team and I would start work at 5 am for a 9 am shift.

For the opening scene of Jodhaa Akhbar, we required an additional armour and were shooting in the midst of the desert in Sambhaar ahead of Jaipur. So, I took an old aluminium trunk, cut up the top, cut and structured it into armour in 45 minutes! The entire film consisted of almost 2,600 costumes, 500 uniforms for each army and additional armours. A group of assistants was designated to handle armour, female costumes, male costumes, footwear, pagris and jewellery separately. The song 'Azeem-o-Shaan' alone had 2,000 dance costumes for various performances within the song. The costuming of every character has been carefully planned in every scene so as to give detail and narrative to the look.