STYLE TALKS: Actress Ananya Chatterjee in a Suchismita Dasgupta creation; (inset) a still from Chaturanga, a film in which the costumes have been designed by Dasgupta

The young and the restless make their own statement. The rock band in a proposed Bengali film stands out not just because of the members’ long hair but by their clothes. And that’s where a Calcutta fashion designer steps in.

The film is yet another offbeat youth-centric Tollywood venture, directed by a Bengali film-maker who wants to keep it strictly under wraps for the moment. It’s difficult to miss echoes of Rock On in the film. The Bengali film industry apparently wants to emulate all aspects of Bollywood wonder boy Farhan Akhtar’s art of film making — including the “designer” elements.

“Rock On’s characters each have a style. Similarly, I was told by the Bengali director that every character in his film will have an individual style,” says Suchismita Dasgupta, a leading Tollywood designer who is creating the wardrobe for the cast.

Dasgupta is also the designer for Kaushik Ganguly’s Jackpot. “Even though Jackpot is an out and out commercial venture, the characters are very real. They are like us — young and trendy. So I had to design their clothes accordingly,” she says.

A “wardrobe revolution” seems to have hit Tollywood. The so-called commercial Bangla cinema is undergoing a major image makeover. A cursory glance at film posters says it all. Koel Mullick beams from Mon Mane Na billboards in a pink polka dress, while in Chirasathi posters she is in smart kurtas. Jostling for space are Tollywood newcomers Rahul, Hiran, Varsha and Priyanka — all trendily attired.

The old order is changing. Young Tollywood film-makers and designers are carving out a new creative space for themselves in the industry. “Being Bong doesn’t mean we can’t be modern. This industry needs a style that’s here and now and also takes into consideration the aesthetics of the region,” says film-maker Birsa Dasgupta, who’s working on his maiden venture 033.

Gone are the days when costume designing in films was left to dresswallahs. More and more mainstream fashion designers, primarily based in Calcutta, are being signed up by Tollywood producers to make their films look glossy, urban and contemporary.

Designer Agnimitra Paul has seen the change since she started working for films in 2000. “Costumes in Bangla commercial cinema those days were simply horrifying,” she shudders. “But new-age Bollywood films, especially those by Karan Johar, made people in Tollywood sit up and take notice.”

Paul is currently working on Shukno Lanka, starring Mithun Chakraborty, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty and Debasree Roy. “I have to design clothes for the entire cast,” she says. “It is wonderful working with a director like Gaurav Pandey who has an eye for detail. For example, Mithunda plays a junior artiste in the film and Gaurav meticulously planned the look for the character.”

Industry insiders say a significant portion of a film’s budget is allocated to a designer look these days — unthinkable even a few years ago when gaudy, one-size-fits-all costumes were the staple for Tollywood stars.

“Fashion designers are a part and parcel of the film industry now. Bengali film audiences are first attracted by promos and then they decide whether a particular film has finesse or measures up to Bollywood standards. We heavily bank on our designers for our ‘first look’,” says Mahendra Soni, director, Shree Venkatesh Films, a film production and distribution company in Tollywood. The budget for costumes in a Venkatesh film, he adds, was Rs 10,000 a few years ago. Now it can go up to Rs 2.5 lakh.

But, some rue, budgetary constraints are still a major hurdle to doing quality work in Tollywood. “After working with the industry for almost eight years, I’d say that on an average the amount of money invested in costume designing for a film has increased by 30 to 35 per cent over all these years. But it’s still peanuts for us,” says Paul.

Dev, one half of designer duo Dev r Nil, feels it is unfair to compare Tollywood with Bollywood’s budgetary allocation for designers. “Bollywood has a huge market, national and otherwise. Budgets for films run into crores in Bollywood and designers in that industry like Akki Narula and Manish Malhotra earn a fortune for every film. To achieve a certain level of workmanship, you need to have a particular kind of investment.”

The two designers, however, have been inundated with offers from Tollywood. At a recent party, they say they were approached by a well-known Tollywood executive producer who expressed a desire to work with them.

Yet many believe Tollywood’s makeover is still evolving. “There is definitely a demand for fashion designers in Tollywood. The industry is more organised but is still loath to explore newer horizons,” says Abhishek Dutta, whose label is popular with stars such as Riya and Raima Sen, June Malia and Koneenica.

Dutta, who has worked in Devaki and Kalpurush, is however quite excited about a new Tollywood project that claims to be based on the Indiana Jones series. “It can introduce a new genre in Tollywood. The budget is being sorted out. Let’s see how things shape up,” he says.

There is a sense of celebration among designers, but is the industry creating new style icons? Sure, says Arindam Sil, actor and an executive producer in Tollywood, known for films such as The Bong Connection and BBD. “The days of downtrodden heroes worshipped on screen are over in Tollywood. We’ll soon be creating new style icons with our films. Just wait and watch!”