New exhibition delves into India's first Oscar winner's creations and creativity

Bhanu Athaiya got the Oscar in 1983. Her costume designing career spanned six decades including seminal work in movies such as ‘Pyaasa’, ‘Guide’, 'Brahmachari' (above, right), ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’, ‘Chandni’ and ‘Lagaan’.

Bhanumati Annasaheb Rajopadhye, born April 28, 1929, in Kolhapur, was best known as illustrator and costume designer Bhanu Athaiya. The two-time National Film Award winner became the first Indian to win an Oscar. This was for her costume design on Richard Attenborough’s ‘Gandhi’ (1982).

Athaiya began her career as a magazine illustrator in Bombay before shifting her talents to fashion design. She made her Hindi film debut with ‘C.I.D’ in 1956. Her costume designing career spanned six decades including seminal work in movies such as ‘Pyaasa’, ‘Guide’, ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’, ‘Chandni’ and ‘Lagaan’. Her last film was in 2015, 'Nagrik', and five years before she passed away at the age of 91.

Three years after her death, her daughter Radhika Gupta and a team of auction house Prinseps, who are the custodians of Athaiya’s work, has catalogued and documented her legacy to put together an exhibition that aims to explore and contextualise Athaiya’s career and creativity.

For four days, from January 28 to 31, 2023, Bikaner House in New Delhi will host The Prinseps Exhibition: Legacy of Bhanu Athaiya. More than 50 exhibits, including personal heirloom textile pieces, oil and water paintings, sketches and film costumes (‘Lagaan’ and ‘Gandhi’, among others) will be on public view.

Athaiya’s daughter Gupta shared that over the years, her mother and she had attempted to place her collection in a museum. “But here, most people don't really value these things. They say we'll see what we can do. It was essential to catalogue the collection to get a sense of the level of work she has put in in this direction. Cataloguing is a mammoth task and it was impossible to do on my own. To find somebody like minded makes the work that much easier, and I felt Prinseps was on the same page as me in terms of archiving and recognizing the historical context of somebody's contribution. That was most important to me,” said Gupta.

Curated by Brijeshwari Kumari Gohil, Vice-President of Prinseps, the chronological exhibition begins with Athaiya’s childhood, tracing her professional journey as a fashion illustrator, building up to her celebrated work as a costume designer. Through her experiences and work, the exhibition also provides a valuable snapshot of the history of Indian art and cinema.

Although many of us are most familiar with her work in cinema, Athaiya’s experiences began with her education at the JJ School of Arts, Mumbai, working as a fashion illustrator with Eve's Weekly magazine, making art advertisements and Indian theatre and cinema costume design.

Gohil described the exhibition as “a showcase of the type of workmanship that went into each of these costumes.” While they have managed to select a number of significant works from her estate, as handed over to Prinseps by Gupta, there is one piece Gohil wishes they could have included. “I do wish we could have had the layered sari gown that she had done for ‘Brahmachari’. But other than that, we do have most of the important chapters of her life covered,” she said.

'Prayers' by Bhanu Athaiya

For those interested, her Oscar statuette is not included as it was returned to the Academy of Motion Pictures for safekeeping in 2012.

When asked about the time when her mother won the international award, Gupta recalled, “She was overwhelmed. The film offered such a huge canvas and it was about somebody who was so recent for her. She was born in 1929 and grew up in the Gandhi, pre-Independence years. To do justice to something like that was a bit daunting, but she just dived in and took up the challenge. As for the Oscar award, well she was not a very excitable human being and the whole experience for her came down to the comment. But she was grateful.”

While the ultimate intent is to find a permanent exhibition space and home for Athaiya’s works, for now the Gohil and Gupta hope the show can travel to other cities. “While the end goal is to partner with a museum that can house the entire collection, the curatorial thought is to dip into each and every aspect that made her Bhanu Athaiya, to balance information with art,” said Gohil.

'Lady in Repose' (oil on canvas)

Gupta and Gohil pick the most significant exhibits:

· ‘Lady in Repose’, the painting for which Athaiya won the gold medal at JJ School of Art.

· ‘Prayers’, the artwork that was part of the Progressive Artists’ Group exhibition, as the only woman artist in the Group.

· Costume from the 1966 film ‘Amrapali’ (1966).

· Gold medal awarded to her by J.J School of Art in 1951.

· Heirloom saris Athaiya inherited from her grandmother.

The Prinseps Exhibition: Legacy of Bhanu Athaiya is on at Bikaner House, from January 28 to 31, 2023.