COSTUME DESIGNER VASUKI BHASKAR INTERVIEW

I was taken by surprise that Ajith was completely fine with the salt ‘n’ pepper. He was what he was in the film. I had an inert feeling about his look before the shoot. And when we shot the first song ‘Vaada Bin Laada’, I saw in the monitor, his close-up shot and was thinking ‘Oh my god, am I really showing this man like this?’ I was really scared at that moment and then realized that it wasn’t a joke to show the silver lines on an actor like Ajith. I even told the cameraman to do the lighting hiding his grey hair. After the shooting of that song Prabhu told me that Ajith sir is planning to keep this look in the whole movie and also after the release. He was a perfect fit to the styling.

With Suriya it was more of his own references that I took to make something new for him. I watched his previous movies and I wanted to give him a look that people have not seen him in. He had done almost all kinds of looks with different accessories and he has actually experimented a lot in the past. For Massu I told him not to use any accessories and asked him to go plain. But the person that Suriya is, he won’t be satisfied easily. After a lot of thinking he found that he has never worn an earring. He said he wants to try using the safety pin as the ear piercing. And he worked for the look.

I usually try to design for the entire movie, that way I will be in charge for the whole look. The colors you see on screen, the style co-ordination between the actors and so on are the elements that I as a costume designer would take care of. I take it as a challenge and it is indeed a different experience when the options are limited. There is a lot to do with the hero’s personality as well. To break it down, it is about the colors we can use, the fabrics that will suit the character and the difference that we can show within that range. Say for instance take Vishal, he is an action hero. Hence, there is only a certain range of colors we can use for him. People have probably seen him in black far too many times. Every time there is an action scene, I as a friend, used to convince him to not use black and make him understand that it is perfectly fine to use other colors. What matters here is how much these colors are blending with the character without hampering the actor’s personality.

Trisha’s costumes in Mankatha were completely character based. Her role demanded a poise as she appeared in the movie. She was also a Mumbai based girl and we had kept that Bhindi just to give a native connect. Everyone’s color tone was very stale and less colorful, but Trisha’s was vibrant. I created the entire line of her clothing by myself and all her attires were tailor made.