Why Rekha, Karisma Looked So Gorgeous In Zubeidaa

‘What if a ring had gotten stolen, or a gem had fallen? There were uncut diamonds, rubies and emeralds. And the security from the jewellery shop came to watch the shoot.’

In the 1990s, film critic, script writer and director Khalid Mohamed set on a mission to write screenplays for three films that narrated his family’s stories. The films spoke about his mother Zubeidaa, his maternal grandparents, a grand aunt who had moved to Pakistan and another who was a thumri singer.

All three films — Mammo (1994), Sardari Begum (1996) and Zubeidaa (2001) — were directed by Shyam Benegal.

Costume designer Pia Benegal worked on the three films, capturing the periods they were set in, as well as the spirit of the characters. Pia, who is Shyam Benegal’s daughter, has also designed costumes for a number of other films including Dil Se.., Aligarh and English August.

Recently, she designed the costumes for Hansal Mehta’s three-part epic series Gandhi, which is yet to be released.

Zubeidaa is perhaps the most commercial work by Shyam Benegal, with big stars (Rekha, Karisma Kapoor and Manoj Bajpayee) and music composed by A R Rahman.

As the film completes 25 years this year,  “Shyam Benegal was a very chilled director to work with, very cool headed, never yelling, never angry or abusive.”

How did Shyambabu work with you as a costume designer, especially in regard to Zubeidaa?

He was very good at designating. If there was a film that he needed costumes to be worked on, he would just say, ‘Here is a script, and if you are interested, would you like to do the costumes?’

I would read the script, and would say, ‘Okay.’

It would be me alone because there were no second or third costume designers. Zubeidaa was done by me, with a team of assistants, dressmen and tailors. In fact, there were just a few assistants. Now, there are many more.At that time, I was studying at NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology) in Delhi, studying, but I took permission from the principal for a few months off. The principal said, ‘You are a professional. Why are you even doing this course?’

I responded by saying I wanted to do it for my own satisfaction. I wanted to feel good that I had a certificate.

Shyam Benegal never directed any department. He was a very chilled director to work with, very cool headed, never yelling, never angry or abusive.

With any film, be it the small budget ones or the bigger films, he was available for any questions such as the back histories of characters, so that you could enrich your costume graphs for each character, or the colour palette.

But he never got in your way. He never ever directed you to move in a particular direction.

That’s why people learnt in his team. I learned on the job. When I started, I knew nothing about hemming, or stitching buttons and hooks.

There are such an array of actors in Zubeidaa — the lead Karisma Kapoor, and Rekha’s character as the older queen. There’s the maharaja (Manoj Bajpayee) and Zubeidaa’s family — her father (Amrish Puri), mother (Surekha Sikri), and even the aunt Mammo (Farida Jalal) shows up in the wedding scene. What thoughts went into designing costumes for them?

Well, the narrative is divided into the first half when Zubeidaa was young and a film actress. Her first marriage doesn’t work out, and she’s distressed. But as a free soul, she is introduced to this very kind, vivacious young, energetic, wealthy royal, and she’s attracted to his magnetism. So the narrative defined the free-spirited costumes of a young actress.

But she has no idea what she’s getting into, how restrictive the new environment will be.

Once she gets married, she’s very joyous. She thinks she has found the right person but the royal environment has certain norms. They dress in particular ways in social environments.

She is a free bird with the prince but gets frustrated and upset when she is with Rekhaji. The way she dresses when she is with him is different. With Rekhaji, she has to follow the norms.

There’s a scene where Rekha and Karisma are wearing identical red outfits. Rekha looks comfortable in the way she’s dressed up, while Zubeidaa is feeling stifled.

Both of them look absolutely gorgeous, but it looks stifling for Zubeidaa.

Tell us about the research that went into designing these costumes.   what was visible to the public was different from what the women did behind, sitting and listening to everything happening in the living room with the men talking. This was not what we call a zenana. Once they got back into their quarters, they dressed much more freely.

Zubeidaa wore special blouses made with a different kind of cut work, but that was in her private space. When she was with the prince, she would dress a little more showy, a little brighter. She broke the colour norms wearing more European colours.

When she went riding, she would wear jackets, breeches and boots, which were worn by the royals at that time. When Lillette Dubey’s character introduces her to the prince, they go for a polo match. But Zubeidaa never wore polo outfits. It was a man’s game. Even her night clothes were worn in a private space.

But when she came out with Rekhaji, she couldn’t wear those things.

Did you look at photographs from that time period?

I did get access to the photographs and albums by the royal family. They were most generous with their family photographs, and I looked at their paintings of that time.

Manoj Bajpayee has played a range of characters but this was perhaps the first time he acted as royalty and wore tuxedos and bow ties. Did he flow naturally into those clothes?

I think Manoj gave an interview where he asked Shyam Benegal, ‘Why have you chosen me? Because I am not good looking.’ Shyam Benegal sat him down and said that the casting had nothing to do with looks. It had to do with how he carried himself and the body language.

That’s when he convinced Manoj he was right for the part. He was perhaps a little awkward because I think all this was too new for him. Suddenly he was a maharaja dolled up and wearing these beautiful turbans. But he smoothly got into the costumes and there was no problem at all.

What I find interesting is that Mammo (1994) was made earlier. Zubeidaa was made later. But the two characters out of Mammo (Zubeidaa’s maternal aunt) and Fayyzai (Zubeidaa’s nani, played by Surekha Sikri) appear in both the films as does Rajit Kapur, who plays Khalid Mohamed.
When the characters appear in the two films, do you think of transition from one to another? They are supposed to be older in Mammo, although that film was made first.

I had to go according to the script and read how Khalid described the characters in the two scripts. The approach was non-linear storytelling, so I couldn’t transpose the characters and actors from one film to another.

I knew they were coming from a previous film, but which one actually came first was not important. Surekhaji‘s character wore white in Mammo because she is a widow in that film. But she wore pale colours in Zubeidaa.

In the wedding song, Mehndi Hai Rachne Wali, there were so many extras and you had to plan their costumes also. That must take a lot of thinking because you define them by the clothes.

That is required because it’s part of the storytelling. I always feel the costumes play a role in helping the actors get into their parts. It becomes the second skin.

But were there any challenges doing costumes for Zubeidaa?

It was an uphill task for me. But the finished film really made me happy when people saw the costumes and the jewellery in the ghoomar dance sequence.

I had gone looking for the jewellery in Jaipur and what I found was not up to the mark. So I contacted a friend of mine who passed away some time back, and she helped me contact a jewellery shop in Jaipur. I met them, and they agreed to lend us the jewellery for a day when we were shooting.

I requested Shyam Benegal to finish the scenes in a day, since I had the jewellery only for that much time. He agreed.