Dressing up the stars

Chaitanya Rao has a grouse. Most individuals know him as a designer. “But only few know me as a costume designer,” says Chaitanya who has simply completed engaged on Reunion, certainly one of the tales in the recently-released Putham Pudhu Kalai, a set of 5 brief movies on Amazon Prime. Reunion noticed him working with Leela Samson, Andrea Jeremiah and Sikkil Gurucharan.

Since it was shot throughout varied levels of lockdown, sourcing clothes was a problem. “Everything was shut. Luckily, I had managed to get a few options from Hyderabad and the rest were borrowed out of Andrea and Leela mam’s wardrobe,” he laughs.

This explicit brief was directed by Rajiv Menon. “I felt like life had come a full circle because I first started out as an assistant costume designer for Minsara Kannavu, which was also directed by Rajiv,” says Chaitanya, who needs to work on a interval movie sometime.

With 50-plus motion pictures to his credit score, the city-based designer has carried out all of it; from fixing a garment in a couple of hours to redoing a complete search for a track in a single evening. “When it comes to creating your own fashion line, you have the luxury of taking three to four months to design a collection. The whole dynamic changes when you are working on a film,” he says.

He feels that you will need to keep in mind to not use the total assortment on an actor simply because one is the costume designer for a movie. “What you create should incorporate the brief of the director while keeping in mind the actor, choreographer and your aesthetics,” he explains.

The time issue can also be a significant distinction between the two worlds he straddles. “Fashion is what you want to showcase: you are looking at one season ahead. But for films, it is important to create a timeless look because sometimes they can take up to two years to get completed,” he says. With a crop of newcomers getting into the world of styling, the skilled designer has a phrase of warning: With a number of manufacturers now out there in the metropolis, it is likely to be simpler to supply garments and equipment however be certain the look you place collectively doesn’t seem like one thing you’ve picked off a retailer.”

Despite being a part of the style and movie business for practically twenty years and having labored with common actors like Trisha, Asin, Simran, Madhavan and Mahesh Babu, Chaitanya believes there isn’t a room for complacency. “You have to constantly make sure there is a freshness to their look. They can’t end up looking like clones,” says the costume designer, who’s at the moment on the Nayanthara-starrer Netrikann and an untitled challenge with Jayam Ravi and Taapsee Pannu.

In Netrikann, Nayanthara performs a visually challenged lady, so her garments needed to be sensible. “In movies, we usually use a lot of fitted outfits with zips at the back and other such details but here these had to be clothes that are easy to slip on and are fluid,” he explains.

Even little particulars like the wristwatch worn by Nayanthara needed to be researched; Chaitanya sourced an easy-to-slip-on watch from the US. “It has a button that opens the glass on top so the wearer can touch and feel the time. These are things we don’t realise and take for granted. Hopefully, after the film releases, it’ll make a difference for the visually challenged here,” he provides.

His calender is packed. Juggling a few movies at the identical time plus attending to shoppers is demanding, he confesses, including, “I do not want to let any of them down, even if it means working from 4 am to 9 pm everyday, which is my current operating schedule.”