New Delhi, Oct 19 (Inditop) Priyanka Chopra’s look in filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar’s much-awaited “Fashion” goes through five subtle but distinct phases, tracing her journey from Chandigarh to a top model in Mumbai.
“We followed the journey of Priyanka’s character Meghna Mathur from the time she comes to Mumbai from Chandigarh to become a supermodel in five phases. It’s a very natural, subtle progression,” said Rita Dhody, who has done the styling for the movie, which is a take on India’s fashion fraternity.
“Initially, she is shown as a very hep character with loud colours – everything is matching in her attire from the lipstick to nail polish to even her shoes. It’s a very look-at-me look,” Rita said, explaining Priyanka’s character in “Fashion”.
“But when the first change occurs, the colour palette begins to change – her make-up becomes light. Then, when she becomes a model and a supermodel, the contrasting change is very visible. When she starts losing it all, she becomes very edgy – everything from the colour palette to the make-up becomes softer to show she doesn’t care any more about her looks before her resurrection takes place,” the stylist told Inditop over telephone from Mumbai.
Releasing Oct 29, “Fashion” also stars Kangana Ranaut, debutante Mugdha Godse, Arbaaz Khan, Arjan Bajwa and many of the who’s who of the fashion industry.
Rita, who runs a company, Ananda, which works on the embroidery silhouettes of international brands like Armani and Chanel, said the actors’ look in the film is based on a classic approach on contemporary fashion and not any existing trend.
“It is very contemporary and a very much today’s look, but my idea was to streamline and take it to the classic side than making it trend-based,” she said.
Rita revealed that the styling for Kangana’s character in “Fashion” would make “audiences feel sorry for her”.
“The movie begins with Kangana’s look as a supermodel. She is very thin so we gave her short dresses with low necklines that wouldn’t look vulgar as we wanted the image to stick to people’s minds that she is a supermodel who is very comfortable with her body,” she explained.
“We also used Kangana’s hair in an exotic manner. We cut it short but kept her mop of curls to make her look more vulnerable when she loses it all. During that phase, she is also shown sporting long t-shirts that would make audiences feel sorry for her,” Rita said.
Debutante Mugdha Godse, who plays a failed model, sports a “bindass” look.
“Mughda’s look in the film is a fusion of rock and a grunge to give her the survivor look as a B-grade model who would do anything before we clean it up, making her more chic and glamorous. We gave her a little bikini top and a t-shirt slashed up like a choli (blouse). She also sports a pair of chains and ankle boots,” she said.
“She’s got a very tiny waist so we tried showing it. We gave her really low-waist trousers and a beautiful tattoo on the side of her hipbone. Her hair was cut short and infused with a strong essence of red in it,” she added.
This is the first time Rita has done the styling for a film and she admits it wasn’t an easy job.
“A lot of detailing went into the film from jewellery, clothes, colour, accessories to nail polish. We had to make sure that everything was in sync with the frame and complemented each other and for that we even worked on the junior artists. We wanted to make it look very authentic and real.
“We didn’t try to sensationalise it by making it more bling or costume-based. I had to restrain myself from going overboard as Madhur can’t take over the styling and there were huge time and budget constraints,” said Rita, who has helped in positioning and building global brands like Dolce & Gabbana (D&G), Chloe, Stella McCartney and Fendi in India.
“We had 11 character-based ramp shows in the film as part of the story line that were very much thought about. There is also a lot of jeans and shirt that have been used in the movie to show the models in real life,” she added.
Rita confessed that she is exhausted with her maiden venture and plans to “refresh” herself before signing on another project.
rounak