For couturier Sandip Jaiswal conceiving the looks for any film or series is always a fascinating and fulfilling journey. And designing the costumes for over 300 people apart from the main cast for the upcoming bilingual web series Lalbazaar has been no less than an adventure. The designer, slogged for over four months, taking rounds of Lalbazaar to get that perfect look for each of the characters, be it police officers, the hapless victims or the hardened criminals. "The looks have come out so real that the moment the trailer got released, calls started pouring in from Mumbai," says Sandip. The fashion designer who has his own eponymous label and is known for his sustainable bridalwear had a hearty chat with Indulge about how he created the looks for Lalbazaar that's poised for release at the stroke of midnight today on Zee5. Excerpts from the chat:
How did you conceive the costumes for Lalbazaar?
The pressure was to create clothes for 306 character artistes apart from the main cast and the requirement was to make each clothe look worn out. I literally tore my hair thinking of ways to bring out that rugged worn look in brand new clothes that we bought for the main characters. If you take a close look at the costumes worn by actors Kaushik Sen and Sauraseni Maitra's characters, you will see the clothes seem to have been worn many times over. To get that look, we soaked the new clothes in tea liquor overnight and exposed them to dit and grease before giving them a wash and ironing them.
We also simply loved the way you have decked up Farzana, the sex worker played by Ronjini Chakraborty. The look is so real...
Yeah, in fact, I loved creating that look and it's getting so much attention. In fact both Ronjini nor Sayantani (Guha Thakurta) are looking like women residing in red light areas. Since childhood, due to our biased conditioning, I had unfounded fears about red light area like Sona Gachi. For this series, I literally overcame the fear and visited the place at n right along with my female assistants to get a first-hand feel of how they dress, do make-up and walk. After thorough research, I created the clothes for Farzana, who mostly wears cheap embroidered kurtis with mismatch churnis and shabby salwars in a colour palette that reflects the economic condition of the character.
And Hrishita Bhatt also looks chic?
Yeah, she plays a chic journalist and there wasn't much required to be done around the character. So, she is mostly in chic casual Western outfits.
Have you got any further offers post-Lalbazaar?
In fact, I was amazed that people in Mumbai literally hunted for my number and got in touch after they watched the trailer. I have already got proposals from two big production houses and a casting company and I have already booked a Mumbai flight in July to go and meet them.
So do you think Bollywood appreciates outsiders?
Of course, they do. If you are a complete outsider, it may take a little time, but hard work surely gets recognition from everywhere, sooner or later.
What are the other projects you are working on?
I am working for a Bangladeshi web series and have completed work for two upcoming films, one starring Ankush and Shubhasree and the other starring Yash and Priyanka Sarkar.
Produced by Surinder Films, Lalbazaar will be released on June 19 on Zee5.