Neeta Lulla on ‘Shaakuntalam’: Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s outfits are easy but alluring

Samantha Ruth Prabhu in director Gunashekhar’s ‘Shaakuntalam’
| Photograph Credit score: Particular Association

It took Neeta Lulla and her crew practically eight months of planning and manufacturing to design greater than 3,000 outfits for the whole solid of the mythological drama Shaakuntalam. Directed by Gunasekhar, it stars Samantha Ruth Prabhu within the title function. The Telugu movie is an adaptation of Kalidasa’s play Abhijnanasakuntalam and is scheduled to hit theatres on April 14, in a number of languages. 

For Neeta, who has been designing because the mid-1980s and has to her credit score greater than 300 films, Shaakuntalam prompted her to dip into childhood reminiscences. “We had a number of five-feet tall work that depicted the story of Shakuntala, in our dwelling whereas rising up. I distinctly keep in mind the ethereal pictures of Shakuntala and one other picture of the fish and the ring from the story,” she says.

Ethereal appears to be like

Neeta had labored with director Gunasekhar for his 2015 Telugu interval drama Rudhramadevi starring Anushka Shetty and was conversant in his penchant for larger-than-life interval and historic dramas. Since Shaakuntalam has its roots in mythology, she referred to volumes of Chandamama and Amar Chitra Katha. “It was fascinating to translate these fairytale-like appears to be like on display for the romance drama. The analysis was not powerful, not like a period-specific historic drama.” 

Among the interval dramas that Neeta has designed costumes for embrace Devdas, Jodhaa Akbar and Thalaivi. Her work for Devdas and Jodhaa Akbar fetched her the Nationwide Award for finest Costume Design in 2002 and 2008. In contrast to these movies that required opulent costumes to befit a royal and an aristocratic setting, Neeta says Shaakuntalam warranted her to maintain issues easy but alluring.

For the parts that unfold within the forests, Neeta sourced flowy effective rely natural cottons and muls from weaver clusters close to Visakhapatnam, Pochampalli and Kanchipuram. Materials that employed vegetable dyes had been most popular. “We wished to recreate the look of a bygone period and on the identical time make it interesting to a recent viewers. We designed such that the silhouettes add to the sensuality of Shakuntala for the parts the place she meets King Dushyanta (Dev Mohan) within the forests. “For Samantha, Dev and everybody else, we didn’t use any material dyed in factory-made chemical colors since it will have been too consideration searching for and obtrusive for that period. We used vegetable dyes even after we wished vibrant, jewel-toned outfits.”

Floral equipment

Neeta’s crew stored sketching the totally different appears to be like for Samantha and Dev each within the forests and the court docket. A factory-like manufacturing adopted to test the fittings for the outfits for each member of the solid. Concurrently, a crew was concerned in making floral jewelry for Shakuntala and her pals. “The recent flowers would arrive round 5.30am and one crew would make floral jewelry — garlands, flowers for the hair, armlets and different equipment. I’d do a few of the difficult patterns myself,” provides Neeta.

Neeta coordinated with Hyderabad-based Vasundhara Jewellers for the adornments. “For Dev’s outfit, we wished lion motifs on his shoulders and jewelry that appeared like physique harnesses. Pearls and gem stones had been bejewelled on the clothes together with hand embroidery”. The jewelry crew got here up with sketches and prototypes that went via modifications. Neck items, hair equipment, bejewelled shirt buttons, tassels, armlets, bangles with motifs of animals and birds had been designed. “It required technical finesse and the crew was receptive to recommendations,” says Neeta.

Neeta’s affiliation with the Telugu movie trade dates again to the time she designed for Sridevi for the fantasy drama Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari co-starring Chiranjeevi and Ram Gopal Varma’s heist thriller Kshana Kshanam starring Sridevi and Venkatesh. “The administrators are very conscious of what they need from the costume division and there’s a clean coordination within the visualisation stage. It’s an trade that respects its technicians,” she says. 

In recent times, Neeta had additionally designed for Krish Jagarlamudi’s Telugu interval drama Gautamiputra Satakarni. She is now engaged on Pawan Kalyan’s new Telugu movie directed by Samuthirakani.

Concurrently, she and her crew are busy coordinating for the Kangana Ranaut starrer Chandramukhi 2 in Tamil. Broach that subject and Neeta says it’s too early to debate it.

Ask her how she has managed to design for greater than 300 movies and if there’s a methodology to selecting her work, she says with fun, “I’m a grasping technician who desires extra work, and by chance difficult initiatives which are research-worthy stored coming my method.”