She has a flair for fashion clothing; a sense of how colours work together and an eye for complementary fabrics. She works with diverse fabrics, shapes and colours to make outfits that are distinctive, practical and fashionable.
City girl Gurram Sindhu Priya says creativity also means developing new designs from old trends. Born and raised in Vijayawada, Sindhu Priya went to Atkinson Higher Secondary school and later pursued a course in Engineering from KL University.
Fashion designing was almost a childhood dream. After tenth she expressed her desire to pursue a formal course in fashion technology but her parents turned it down advising her to secure a degree in an engineering course.
There was however a hope that she could cling on to. Her father said if her interest in fashion technology remained intact even till the end of a four-year B. Tech course, he would let her follow her heart.
The girl continued chanting the ‘fashion’ mantra till she was bundled off to Chennai where she studied fashion technology.
While doing internship in visual merchandising, she met a few people who introduced her to a costume designer in Chennai film industry. It is here that she met Nikhaar Dhawan, a fashion designer from Delhi, who later invited her to work as her assistant in dressing up superstar Rajinikanth and his leading ladies Sonakshi Sinha and Anuskha Shetty in Lingaa.
Thus began her journey in the tinsel world. Sharing her experience of working for Rajinikanth, she gushes: “Rajini Sir is the go-to address for lessons in humility. He is the coolest of all. Even if things go wrong, he doesn’t make you feel awkward. He remembers every single person on the set by name. With me, he would talk only in Telugu.”
As far as costumes are concerned, “his only request is not to design ‘heavy’ clothing. “I can’t carry such heavy load,” he would plead but would gracefully carry them without complaining when the scene demands.”
While working for Lingaa, she got an offer to dress up Mahesh Babu in Tata Sky ad. “Mahesh Babu is very particular about his dressing style. By nature he is quiet, pleasant and full of warmth.”
She then shifted for a while to Mumbai to work for ads like Complan and Mahindra car besides a Marathi movie Sketch. Sindhu Priya is excited about her latest project, draping the lead character in an English album What’s up with that. Equipped with experience of working in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi film industries, she now plans to launch her own brand in city through ‘Sriven’s’ fashion technology institute. “I derived the first three letters of the names of my parents (Srilakshmi and Venkata Subbaiah) to name the institute,” she explains.
Sindhu Priya recently launched her brand in city in a dazzling show graced by young hero Akhil Akkineni. To start with, she says, the institute will offer diploma and PG courses in fashion designing and faculty will be roped in from Hyderabad and Mumbai.
“When I was studying, many of my friends wanted to pursue fashion designing but were dissuaded by parents who argued that the city is not ready for it.
Now that things have started happening here, I want parents to rethink their stand and allow their wards to pursue the course of their choice,” she says.