Besides the Durga Puja palate flavours, fashion designer Aki Narula had flavours of a different kind on his mind when t2 dialled him recently. That of retaining the flavour of the old Judwaa in the Varun Dhawan-starrer Judwaa 2, where the La Martiniere boy has styled the star in both his Raja and Prem avatars.
How have you reinterpreted Prem and Raja?
The flavour of the film is the same (as that of the 1997 Salman Khan-starrer). Most excitingly the producer is the same, which is Sajid Nadiadwala. The director is the same (David Dhawan). It was a big honour to work with David Dhawan. Varun towards the end of Badrinath Ki Dulhania asked me to come on board for this project.
We started our first schedule shooting the Ganpati song. After that we shot in London for about two months. It was a fantastic experience and most importantly, it had to be relevant in 2017, in terms of the look and feel.
Raja is still home-bred, very local, living in a chawl in Bombay. And then how he moves to London and what happens between the twins. Prem is London-bred. The most challenging thing was to keep the difference in terms of the styling.
Prem is a nerd. He is simple. We put him in typical British colours like pale pastels and nothing really over the top. Muted, very chic in university blazers and sweaters and really cool sneakers, a lot of English-weather blues, a lot of lilacs, a lot of colours inspired by the English countryside. The whole nerd-y geek chic is another genre that is hugely trending… pinstripe, varsity sweaters and jackets and blazers. That was very exciting for Varun and me because we haven’t seen Varun is such a character before. He has always been larger than life, always a bit mass-y, in the kind of roles that he has done. Prem was a bigger challenge… to keep it sober, muted and yet very stylish.
With Raja, we had all the fun possible, in terms of a riot of colours and bringing out a local vibe of how we see the kids today. The Ganpati visarjan was a big reference point for us. It is very big in Bombay and it is synonymous with saffron. We have Raja in oranges, pinks… flamboyant. It had to ooze that kind of street-smart confidence. Almost like how some flashy para dadas dress in Calcutta! How they add their own little twist… you will always find them going a little over the top. Every region has such quirky elements. There is a homage to a silver T-shirt or orange jeans.
David Sir was very clear that there had to be a very strong definition between the style of the two boys. And when they come face to face, that’s what makes the drama even more exciting. You see the contrast very well.
What have you retained from the Judwaa of 1997?
Salman was a very big help. He in fact sent a couple of his jeans, typically ’70s, ’80s, acid-wash jeans, across to us to use on Varun for the character of Raja. Just as the fashion cycle evolves and comes around, we are celebrating the ’90s today as well. That made it easier for me as a stylist to source these things because they are still trending.
If you look at stores across the world, across brands… from high street… from Zara, Jack & Jones onwards right up there… there is a huge denim revolution. Acid wash, different kinds of washes, different kinds of embellishments… I don’t think denims has seen such a big comeback ever since then. We were very excited to have Salman’s enthusiasm.
Was there pressure to recreate an iconic film?
I think it was an honour to create something iconic 20 years later. I have watched Judwaa many times before. What I love? Salman Khan all the way. We had tried to keep the essence, like for example in Tan tana tan and Oonchi hai building. Raja does a lot of coloured jeans for example. The fashion cycle is all about denims and textures. We are all over celebrating colour. All thanks to Alessandro Michele at Gucci, it’s about bling, flash and sequins. It’s about recreating Studio 54 days in terms of fashion. All that has seeped in to help Raja’s character… in terms of the essence of colour, flash, notice-me, I-am-the-cool-one!
For me the biggest challenge was that this is the first double role I have ever done in my career. It was hard work for Varun because you are literally getting into one character in the morning and in the same set-up in the afternoon you are getting into the other character… a change of dialect, diction and body language. All these things actually help costumes a lot. He has really gone all out. The surprise is Varun as Prem Malhotra… very suave, chic, restrained.
Saionee Chakraborty
