Costume designer Niharika Bhasin has helped bring alive a retro Bombay in Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet. Her best tip on retro dressing? “Wear that gown when it needs to be worn and wear it well”. A t2 chat...

Bombay Velvet is looking fab!

Yayyy! I get damn excited when somebody says that. I am nervous about it. I am glad. 

Is this the most extensive period film you have done?

Most period I’d say because it’s spread over ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. I think that’s why it’s so extensive. I don’t think I have ever done a film that’s so extensive on period and over such a vast span of time and with so many people.

What comes to your mind when you say period Bombay? A certain romance...

There’s definitely romance, definitely formality which we have lost today. There was the definite distinction of the British influence... today it’s more of a khichdi... we have a mix and match. 

What was your research like?

We researched from everywhere. We got photographs, library work, the Net.... Anurag (Kashyap) had given us a small brief of what was happening but wanted us to create the backstory. We spent three-four months if not more on putting it together. We looked at photographs from the Parsi side of my family, the Jamshedpur connect (Niharika hails from Jamshedpur). My dad was with the Tatas. So, we got pictures of JRD Tata, Russi Mody. We were looking at high-end Parsis. The Calcutta Parsis were very stylish. Everyone brought in photographs from that era which we then chose from. Designer Urvashi Joneja helped us with the costumes. There were also so many many characters we had to work with. We had at least 150-300 people off and on for the jazz part (Anushka Sharma plays a jazz singer).... There were about 15 people who were secondary characters. It was very distinctive to the years. The subtle nuances that separated the decades... we literally had an airport hangar with all the clothes out! We had a wall with ’40s, ’50s and ’60s fashion boards. Lots of fun! We had Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, Waheeda Rehman, Saira Banu, Gayatri Devi, Begum Para... everyone in those eras for the women. For men, we had RD Burman to James Cagney to Gene Kelly to Dev Anand.

How would you describe Ranbir Kapoor’s look?

In the beginning you see him in a shabby jacket that doesn’t fit him. That is where he starts off. He wants to wear a jacket. As he goes on, his suits become tailored and better. You see the difference between him and his best friend Chiman (Satyadeep Mishra). Satyadeep does change because he has money but he is not into the status and the flamboyance of it. Johnny (Ranbir) wants the flamboyance of it.

Anushka Sharma is looking super glamorous...

Anushka’s amazing! And she had the body to carry it off. We wanted her to put on a little weight which she did. At that time, there were no size zeroes. Women were voluptuous. It is a glamorous role. She comes from Portuguese Goa, an Anglo-Indian.

And Karan Johar is killing it! So menacing...

He is killing it! I was nervous about Karan because he is a stylist in his own right. He has dressed Shah Rukh Khan. I thought he would definitely come with his own opinion that would probably be different from ours. He didn’t. He came to the sets as an actor. Karan, in his daily life, doesn’t wear colour. And I had this whole presentation of flamboyant colours. I needed him to be this dapper Parsi who knows about fashion and how to carry himself. He took it on and made it his own. It worked within the framework of the film. I had these two Parsis — Manish Chaudhry and Karan — and I needed them to be vastly different. Because of Karan’s character and personality, his flamboyance had to show as opposed to Manish’s subtle, the hanging-out-in-the-crowd unseen menace. And everyone is wearing suits. So, I had to tailor those to make the characters look different.

How to work retro

♦ Try skinny pants. These have come from drainpipe pants that used to be there during our parents’ time.
♦  Wear headgears.
♦  Brooches on men’s suits up the retro quotient. We have used everything from flowers to jewellery.
♦  Pocket squares work nicely. They add a little colour if you are a subtle person.  
♦  Putting flowers in your hair is such a lovely detail. The crystals on the gloves is also a nice element.