The trailer of Kangana
Ranaut starrer ‘Thalaivi’ is out and her impactful performance in the 3
minutes 22-second teaser has already set the tone for the big release of the
film that is scheduled for April 23.
In the trailer, one could
see how Kangana’s outfits, especially her saris are adding more power to her role as Jayalalithaa for
instance that scene where she gives the reference of ‘Cheer Haran’ after her
sari was pulled in Assembly. Neeta Lulla, who is the costume designer of the
film, says that “you will actually see the graph of
her saris onscreen.”
“… and I had a field
day doing that. From woven Kanjeevaram to embroidered to the printed, from Rs.
400 saris to wherever we went, we have done it well. We have shown her
(Jayalalithaa) graph with the saris as well through the film. It was not a
conscious effort because that was her so anyways through the graph of the film,
we could create that,” she told Opoyi.
It was said that on
March 25, 1989, Jayalalithaa, the Leader of the Opposition and the first
woman in the state to occupy that post, was assaulted in the Tamil Nadu
Legislative Assembly and the scene was enacted so beautifully by Kangana in the
trailer in a black sari.
Talking more about the
research, Neeta says “there is a lot of research that went into it in terms of
watching her films. From watching every aspect of her life from the time she
was 16 to when she became the minister.”
“ A lot of detail on
how she dressed in her films, how she was dressed when she was younger, going
through the time span of her life, everything had to be carefully thought about
and planned,” added Neeta.
She also says that this was “one of the most difficult films” in her career.
“…because predominately
it was dependent on creating real-life and walking the thin line between making
it visually where it is (referred from) and also creating a real-life cinema
sequence which we have done between her and MGR (played by Arvind Swami) in the film. I did
clothes for both Arvind Swami and Kangana in the film and I think it was very
challenging and yet it was very enjoyable too,” she said.
Talking more about why
it was enjoyable and challenging both at the same time, she says that “every
time you saw a recreation from her film, you saw something different in the
aspect of dressing and in the aspect colour scheming and hairstyling.”
“I think I must have
seen each and every song at least 15 times over and over again to create a
similarity but every time a new aspect came up. It was amazing how detailed she
was in her dressing for her cinema and even at that point of time to be able to
create what she did because she was known as a fashion icon of her time,” added
Neeta.
Neeta also says that the
most challenging was creating the prosthetics suit for the film.
“ It was absolutely
hand done by me and I really enjoyed making it and I think that was one of the
challenges and that’s the reason I said it’s one of the most difficult projects
that I ever worked on,” she said.
Working with Kangana
on the film was equally beautiful for Neeta.
“She is a perfect
fashion muse. She doesn’t question your sensibilities of work and she goes with
the flow of what you give here. The one thing about Kangana is that
characterization is very important to her more than just the glam aspect and I
never had a situation where there has been a question mark that what am I
giving her and why am I giving her. So I would say I have had a fantastic work
relationship and I think she is the person who is the perfectionist and rightly
so,” she said.
Neeta is currently
shooting for another film in Hyderabad but she did say that she got goosebumps while watching the trailer.
