“Now what we have is stylist, Bhanu was a true blue designer,” said veteran actor, Zeenat Aman, while speaking about Oscar awardee, costume designer and painter, Bhanu Athaiya. She was speaking during an interaction with fashion journalist Sujata Assmoull at The Aguad on the topic, ‘Breaking Stereotypes’. This was part of the second edition of Prinseps exhibition, ‘Bharat Through the Lens of Bhanu Athaiya’.
Zeenat wore costumes designed by Bhanu in 15 films in 16 years right from 1970s to 80s. That included movies like ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’ (1978), ‘Alibaba Aur 40 Chor’ (1980), ‘Pukar’ (1983), ‘Insaf Ka Tarazu’ (1980), etc.
During this one-hour discussion between Zeenat and Bhanu Athaiya’s daughter, Radhika Gupta, they spoke about the designs Bhanu created, her style of working, and how she made her female actors comfortable on screen.
Zeenat who had extensively worked with her maintained that Bhanu managed to bridge the gap between what the producer wanted and what the artist was comfortable with.
Speaking about her much-talked about role of Rupa in ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’, where she was dressed in ‘ghara-choli’ with a disfigured face. She said, “My concern was to be comfortable (in those costumes) and not look crass. I am happy to say that none of my costumes looked crass.”
She further informed that photographer and painter J P Singhal had painted lot of tribal women so he gave a brief to Bhanu. Based on that there was a look test and a reel was shot to show it to the producers and the film was sold immediately.
Radhika Gupta stated that Zeenat carried off those costumes with grace and posture. She added, “My mother said that ‘I would have never imagined of creating something with such little fabric and it would be so stunning.”
Throughout the interaction, Zeenat spoke highly about Bhanu and her style of working, who did extensive research and was phenomenally creative. Zeenat stated that how both of them discussed scenes, kind of clothes the character would wear, including the significance of a colour in a particular scene.
Bhanu gave Zeenat a variety of costumes—right from their first film ‘Dhund’ (1973) where she wore mostly sarees to ‘Pukar’ where she wore western dresses.
Speaking of ‘Pukar’ which was shot in Goa and was about Goa’s freedom struggle, Radhika added that Bhanu experimented with new design in this film. “This design was first time used in Hindi film. It was based on Mondrian painting and it was called Mondrian effect which had bold colours with black stripes. She (Bhanu) did her own twist on that which is seen in dresses,” said Radhika. Zeenat added that those costumes in ‘Pukar’ are her favourite especially the silhouettes were magnificent.
During the discussion, costumes of movies like ‘Alibaba Aur 40 Chor’ were also discussed. It was the first Indo-Russian production and Bhanu travelled to Central Asia to do her research. Zeenat added that she had worn lot of turbans and veils in this movie.
Bhanu Athaiya, who is the first Indian to win an Oscar for the Richard Attenborough’s movie ‘Gandhi’ (1982), did costume for the entire movie. “For the funeral scene, she dressed 3 lakh people. She tied 1500 dhotis and turbans every two hours,” elaborates Radhika. She had to tie dhotis of different style right from Maharashtrian farmer to Bengali Zamindar.
Radhika informed that she got ‘Gandhi’ film by chance when Simi (Garewal) informed her about the same. She added that Bhanu was apprehensive first as Gandhiji was so close to history and there is so much material already available on him. So, there was no room for mistake.
She did an extensive research for it like recreating Kasturba’s saree. It had embroidery with letter ‘M’ all over. “Kasturbaji had done it herself. So my mother recreated that saree. Kasturba was a proud wife of MK Gandhi and for her, it was the best way to show how much respect she had for him,” added Radhika.
She informed that Bhanu returned the Oscar to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as she was scared after stealing of Rabindranath Tagore’s Noble Prize. She used to keep her award in her workshop that had a little lock. But then she started keeping it in the room and when she went to LA and interacted with other women costume designer winners during their felicitation, she realised that many had returned the award. She did the same and also gave lot of work related to Gandhi movie.
Bhanu with her unique style is also known for innovation as she designed stretched churidars and stitched and zipped sarees. It was first worn by Waheeda Rehman for the song ‘Aaj Phir’ in movie ‘Guide’ (1965) as the song had lot of dancing, jumping around.
Radhika also threw light on what Bhanu felt about current situation in films who worked for six decades from 1950s to 2000s. She added that Bhanu believed that only one designer should work for a film. She felt that having two-three designers would have their own perspective and wear against each other. She did costumes for the full film like ‘Gandhi’, ‘Reshma Aur Shera’ (1971), ‘Lagaan’ (2001), etc.
On a concluding note when Zeenat was asked about her grey characters which she played in movies, where costumes played a major part, she said it was after the success of ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’ (1971). Many producers wrote roles for her that had shades of grey like in ‘Heera Panna’ (1973), ‘Roti Kapda Aur Makaan’ (1974). She said, “I was the good girl-bad girl. These roles broke the demarcation of a vamp and Madonna.” She did many Navketan movies, where she had lot of western costumes of mini-skirts and boots. “The challenge was ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’. As an artist who was accepted as a movie star in western format crack that I had to play pujari’s daughter with a disfigured face, now that was the challenge.”
The exhibition, ‘Bharat Through the Lens of Bhanu Athaiya’ curated by Brijeshwari Kumari Gohil will remain open till January 1, 2024, at The Aguad from 10 am to 8 pm.
Zeenat Aman during an interaction with Radhika Gupta (center) and Sujata Assmoull at The Aguad Zeenat Aman during an interaction at The Aguad.