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Manish’s mantra
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Manish Malhotra talks to Sangeetha Devi Dundoo about designing for IPL, directing a film and more
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PHOTO: K. Murali Kumar
FASHION TO FILM DIRECTION Manish Malhotra
Bollywood’s favourite designer Manish Malhotra wants a break. No, he’s not calling it a day. He’s had enough of styling and designing for the divas and badshahs of the industry. He wants to work on select projects, build his label and direct his own film.
Catching up with Manish Malhotra in a candid mood…
You’ve worked for nearly 1,000 films in 17 years. Has it been a fulfilling journey?
I had no formal training in fashion. I had no money to go abroad and study fashion and there was nothing in Mumbai. I was a terrible student in school and spent all my time watching Hindi films. When I look back, I realise I know nothing of maths, geography, history or physics. I passed the science subjects only because I was good at drawing. I wanted to be a director or an actor. My cousin sister got married to David Dhawan and through them, I entered cinema. By then, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, Rohit Bal and Rohit Khosla had all started designing. I thought if I wanted to be part of the fraternity, I could start with films.
In the early 90s, we had great heroines such as Sridevi and Madhuri who weren’t exactly wearing the greatest of clothes. The first two years were hell. I worked with big names such as Sunny Deol, Chunkey Pandey, Sridevi, Shilpa Shirodkar and Vijayashanti. But producers wouldn’t pay in time or the cheques would bounce. My dad asked me if it was worth working like this for 20 hours a day.
But I wasn’t going to leave films; I had nothing to fall back on. I then spoke to Sridevi and decided on giving her a particular look for an entire film. Heroines shifting from long to short hair in different scenes of the same film didn’t make sense to me. She agreed and Gumrah happened. From then on, it was a different journey.
You are taking on very few films now. Why?
I have my own label now; it’s big business. I have my own store in Mumbai, two stores in Dubai and 10 in India where I send my collections. All this requires time. I accept films only if they are interesting, like Om Shanti Om, or for friends whom I cannot refuse.
You’ve been talking of directing a film for the last few years….
Films, brides and fashion weeks have kept me busy. I refused to do Fashion Week this time but Lux persisted, saying it was their first time at the Fashion Week and that they needed me since the concept was about beauty and divas. So I came back from Miami where I was working on Dostana, designed the collection and went back. I guess I have to take a break for six months and work on my film. Hopefully it should be out in 2009.
Is Karan Johar producing your film?
(Looking startled) I am not saying anything now.
You are working with Karan again for Dostana. What makes you a constant fixture in his films?
Karan is very interested in fashion and knows what he wants for his film. Our friendship grew with every film. For Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (KANK), I designed for the entire film. That takes up a lot of my time. In Dostana, I am designing only for the girls. I’ve had very long associations not just with Karan but also with Kareena, Karisma, Preity, Urmila, Sridevi, Madhuri, Rani and Kajol. In the South too, I’ve had memorable experiences designing for Vijayashanti, Chiranjeevi, Rajnikanth, Nagarjuna and Balakrishna.
You gave Urmila a new identity in Rangeela. Now you’re designing for the remake of Karz, where she plays a stylish, 50-plus reclusive woman. What will a 50-plus Urmila look like on screen?
I am not taking age into account. What I understand of her character is that even if she is 50 years old, she doesn’t look it and doesn’t want to. I am 41 now, yet I wear something that will suit even the 20-30 age group. It’s not that I’ve dressed up Urmila like a baby doll or a young, peppy college girl. The look is sexy and stylish but these are clothes that will look good on a 30-year-old as well.
The only bad press you got in the recent past was for Vidya Balan’s clothes in Heyy Babyy. What went wrong?
Some times things don’t work, perhaps the lighting isn’t good or the hairstyle is wrong. The Heyy Babyy team felt I wasn’t needed for the Australia schedule. I should have put my foot down. I kept asking her if the clothes went with the hairstyle and make up and she kept saying everything was fine. But on screen, everything was wrong.
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The IPL experience
I have worked with SRK for Kal Ho Na Ho and KANK and he never discussed clothes as much as he did for IPL. It was fun designing clothes for the Knightriders team. The team is like SRK’s baby. For IPL, we worked in association with Belmonte (for official wear) and Reebok (for sports wear) and stylised the look.
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