If Chiranjeevi looked dapper in his suits, radiated class and sophistication in Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu or if you had forgotten Ram Charan was a star and only a character in Rangasthalam , the credit goes to Sushmita Konidela. She crafted a career very early in life. After graduating from NIFT, Sushmita studied fashion styling and photography for media and thereafter became a full-time stylist for her husband, father and an image consultant for her extended family. When her father Chiranjeevi took a break from cinema and moved to politics, she too was on a sabbatical raising her daughters; she has now moved the base from Chennai and is fully devoted to working as a fashion designer on her father and brother’s films. Over a cuppa at her office in Jubilee Hills, a very articulate and professional Sushmita gives insights into the prestigious home production Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy and how fulfilling is her job of designing men’s wear and setting fashion goals.
Sushmita says in the last five years, the market for designers and stylists in Hyderabad has grown manifold. From her debut project Jai Chiranjeeva to becoming a fashion designer for Sye Raa, she has learnt a lot and her skill is still evolving. “I have been styling mostly menswear for 15 to 20 years. Dressing up is not a wasteful exercise or expenditure. I see it as a great tool to boost your confidence when you walk into a meeting or an event. These days designers are getting amazing exposure; there are so many opportunities to dress up actors. Stylists too are becoming popular on account of that. I have been in the field because of a great combination of a love for films and fashion equally. The involvement with the story and understanding the director’s point of view comes first and I use the tool of fashion to portray the characters.”
Challenges of a period film
Designing for a period film that is supposed to have a pan-India appeal is not easy. The first thing Ram Charan and Sushmita did was hold brainstorming sessions before they approached the director, who was apparently busy with the script. She describes it as an overwhelming feeling. “We broke up things into smaller and simpler portions for us to consume. We were clueless and even the director was educating himself. We had to work on the portions from 1820 to 1840 and the only advantage was I was a topper of Costume History — both Indian and Western — in college and had taught the subject. I started with the basics and sought research time of eight months to make a presentation with our team. It is not a fictional film, it had to be dated and authentic. Our production designer and others were all in the same frame of mind. We could play with creativity to only about 20 % . I spent most of the time at the NIFT library, spoke to my history teacher and went through books and various reading material.”
Sushmita Konidela
Sushmita shares that Uyyalawada is not well documented. There is only one painting to indicate how the character might have looked, and it wouldn’t be fair to do an entire film based on that. So they began to look out for the ‘Palegars’ and other people in that period. Transport, weapons, utility and furniture had to be put together and Sushmita roped in some of the students of history from NIFT. Thereafter they segregated stuff and presented it to the creative team. She adds, “We wanted to source clothes from Anju Modi as she has done Bajirao Mastani but the collaboration did not work out. She wasn’t getting the essence and I had to take her place which is why I decided to move to Hyderabad. Rajeevan did his research for art and I did this for costumes and we put it together. I initially handled dad’s costumes but later took over Amitabh’s, Nayantara and Tamanna’s too.”
Sushmita admits increasing the budget was an issue. She roped in Uttara Menon for styling. She quips, “None of them had the experience to get things rolling on time without stopping the shoot. If I spend more I can get it ready faster but I didn’t have the budget. We had pressure from the director and had to meet deadlines. There was a huge war sequence coming up and I had to get garments ready for 500 people, arrange for the tattoos on their body and design a look for them. Earthy colours have been used for Chiranjeevi. We all worked on one colour palette for the film. Uyyalwada died by 1830. He would have started his war in 1820, so we used khadi cotton, gauze, mulmul and even silks because India was rich in textiles at that time.”
It is not a regular social film and garments are heavy and Sushmita says she did her best to make Chiranjeevi comfortable. “At the end of the day, he’d get a shoulder pain because of the armour and other accessories. Still, he was very accommodating and hardly complained even when the leather-strapped footwear would pinch his feet. For long shots we gave him regular shoes and gave leather for close up shots,” says Sushmita talking about her day’s dedication. Her commitment towards the project would make her dad feel proud of her too.
