Sunday night. 10.30pm. We dial Aki Narula for a chat on Tamasha, Imtiaz Ali’s latest starring Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor. This adda was supposed to happen at noon, but given Aki’s busy schedule on the sets of Rock On!! 2, the Calcutta boy has only just reached his Mumbai home. But chat he will with us. “I am doing this because I am a Calcutta boy. It always gives me great pleasure when something comes out in t2. It does my father proud. He is alone and he still lives in Calcutta. It’s a feel-good moment,” says Aki. And yes, that comes straight from the heart, (one Calcuttan to another), much like the rest of the chat.
How much do you miss Calcutta?
Oh! A lot! I left Calcutta on August 14, 1997. Till last year, the 24-25 films I have worked on have never been shot in Calcutta. I would always tell my assistants over the years that I really want to shoot in two places — Calcutta and Thailand. My grandparents used to live in Thailand. So, I have had many beautiful holidays there. When I signed Tamasha last year and I read the script and I was talking to Imtiaz… this was in April last year and he said that there is a whole chapter of the film in Calcutta. I was like: ‘What! Are you serious?!’ That actually came true in January when I was in Calcutta for 15 days shooting for Tamasha. I think for me it was the best tribute I could ever give to the city and the city could give to me.
I was staying at The Oberoi Grand. My house is on Theatre Road. I would go and meet my father every two days. I would tell him what I did and where we shot. It was the high of saying ‘Thank you’ to Calcutta. This is where the dreams of becoming a designer were born. More than a decade later films happened. I completed 10 years in May this year of Bunty Aur Babli releasing. Ten years, different directors, different kinds of projects and then I come back to Calcutta working with my favourite director Imtiaz Ali!
It’s a trip down memory lane to stay in my bedroom, go to The Saturday Club which is right across the road. I walk down with my father, have a beer or a Bloody Mary, order some food and hang with all his friends. All of us have a good laugh and then he and I go to a Bengali restaurant. Bhojohori (Manna) is still one of our favourites. I go overboard. If there is ilish, then I love the fried ilish. I also love the tel koi and pabda shorshe. It’s fantastic. Then there is 6 Ballygunge Place.
When I was in school (La Martiniere for Boys) and college (St. Xavier’s), I would go with him to Suruchi. Fantastic food!
Given the Calcutta connect, is Tamasha your favourite film?
I believe what is beautiful and special is what is happening at that time. The landscape changes. As a result we change. Our hearts change. Our heads change. It’s fantastic. You are growing older, sexier and wiser. I feel Tamasha is my most grown-up work. I think that’s going to stay with me for a very long time. And whenever you watch Tamasha, please text. I know there will be a smile on your face.
Take us into the world of Ved (Ranbir Kapoor) …
Ved is curious. He is searching. There are fantastic moments to him. And the moments are fun, role-playing and introspective. He is quirky too. He knows himself and experiments, like it’s good and bad. All of us will take away from the film… that ‘Oh my god, that’s me!’ feeling. Just follow your heart and follow your dreams.
I have styled Ranbir Kapoor and 143 other people. Along with that the ambience and the background... I have been doing that with Imtiaz. Like in Highway, every little thing that you saw on screen was done by me. That’s the sensibility that Imtiaz has inculcated in me, that it’s not just about the hero or the heroine… what actually builds the screen and makes it authentic is what is happening around. He always says: ‘Aki, you don’t design for stars. You design for characters’. In totality of costumes, the last time I counted, which was in September last year when we wrapped up the last part of the film, it was close to more than 1,000 outfits!
It was all about creating the whole world of Ved around him, whether it’s school, college, Corsica, Shimla, Delhi. All of it, in true Imtiaz style, was organic and local. What makes the creative process with Imtiaz very exciting is that we shoot in a linear format. It makes a creative person like me all the more charged-up. We are going through the journey as well and as you are moving from place to place, you get different ideas. There are different thought-processes that each location inspires, especially if it’s as diverse as Corsica— where there was a lot of research on Asterix and Greek mythology— and then there is Delhi. As you’ve seen in the trailer, there are a lot of influences of comic books, Amar Chitra Katha, mythological stories and love stories that we read about like Heer-Ranjha and Sohni-Mahiwal.
For me, it was tackling a different world every month that I was working. I think it’s my take on a period film... Imtiaz and mine... beautiful dream of ‘a’ period… from what happened in the ’70s till now through the journey of Ved. For me, that was creating a vibe. I just feel that when someone does ’70s or ’80s or ’90s, it is a bit exaggerated on screen like big collars, bell-bottoms and poofy hair… I mean, it’s great... we have done it in a real, organic way. You just follow your heart. There are many moments when that ‘ting’ happens and it just shoots up. Then it’s very real.
What is Ved’s wardrobe like?
From school uniforms to just getting into college which is a very Shimla college — knits and ready-made trousers — there is a boyish quality to it. And then there is Corsica where there is madness. It was all about colour, I-am-going-on-this-trip-on-my-own feel. This is me! There is bravado. Imtiaz and I have never done colour. I told him let’s go very urban. Let’s do all these lovely pants, these chinos in mustards and greens and blues. Also, interesting sweatshirts, sports jackets that I revamped, from making it sleeveless to doing some patchwork to add some denim to it… just customising it the Ved way. We also did simple linen shirts and worn-out sneakers. I added a backpack… so, this cool, urban backpacker. The colours just fit in beautifully. Then our take on the mythological… I think pop art will be redefined in a sophisticated way. Imtiaz said this was the first film he had done where there is a silent relationship between the camera and the costumes.
Anything special that we’ll see in the Calcutta chapter?
You are going to see some really beautiful saris. You are going to see this vintage chikan kurta which we have borrowed from a friend’s dad which he’s worn on his engagement. That makes it 55-60 years old. You will see one or two interesting shawls.
How I approached the Calcutta chapter was... a lot of what is heritage Calcutta. I asked people to get those kind of tangail saris or tanchois or… Meera Basu (the Dr Sarat Banerjee Road sari stop dating back to the ’70s). They also graciously got some vintage jewellery. I cannot wait to see the film!
Basically, you had a blast!
Of course! I spent the best months in a row on this film. Being on an outdoor (shoot) with Imtiaz, you don’t want to leave. You come back and you are like: ‘Oh! My god… life was so much better there’.
You share a special bond with Imtiaz Ali…
I think we both have come a long way from Rockstar to Highway and then Tamasha. The Imtiaz of Rockstar was different, the Imtiaz of Highway was different and the Imtiaz of Tamasha is very different. I keep telling him: ‘Imtiaz you are at your emotional best in Tamasha’ and he’ll say: ‘Not at all! I think I am less emotional’. It’s been about six years of knowing Imtiaz. Three films in a row. Very different works. After Rockstar and Highway, I think there is a new chapter in terms of creativity and ideas that we kind of discover in each other. The best part of working with him is that there is a creative dialogue and it’s fantastic growing up with him.
What is it like styling Ranbir?
He is adorable, someone I would call my kid brother. It’s all going towards the heart. It’s fantastic. There is an unspoken, implicit trust that we share. A lot of that is also because of Imtiaz. From Rockstar onwards, salwars with leather jackets… you know it’s gutsy. And then Tamasha. He knows it’s fine.
How do you look back on your 10-year Bolly journey?
My father encouraged me to move to Delhi, that’s what I wanted. Till 2000 in Delhi and then Bombay. It is where my heart is. Bombay is where I have fallen in love and stands for what Aki is today, in cinema, for sure. If I have to say ‘thank you’ to that one person, it would be Adi Chopra (Aditya Chopra). When I met him (for Bunty aur Babli), he said: ‘When you do fashion and your own line, you are god. Here there are going to be many gods’. I could not have done that without Adi. He is a mentor.
The next 10 years for Aki will be…
A lot of Calcutta in the next 10 years! A trip to go and study… may be study vintage in LA, New York and Paris. The other parallel thought is to go to a film school and do scriptwriting courses. Eventually, I want to write. I think I have some ideas. Calcutta will help me in that. It’ll be a beautiful journey coming back home.
Will you consider settling down in Calcutta?
I was discussing it with my father when I was there in May-June. We were at The Saturday Club. I said, it’s a fantastic life. You walk to The Saturday Club, you have a Bloody Mary, have lunch, come home and take a nap, go to CC&FC in the evening, have a couple of drinks, go to Nizam’s. Over the weekend go to Park Street, Roxy, eat at Peter Cat or Mocambo. When I want to come back and take it easy, I would make Calcutta my home. And, Coonoor when it’s hot in Calcutta.
Aki’s 10 Calcutta favourites:
Dimple Court (Theatre Road; that’s where Aki stays in Calcutta)
♦ The Saturday Club
♦ CC&FC
♦ Nizam’s
♦ Shiraz
♦ The Park
♦ Jhaalmuri
♦ Phuchka
♦ Driving from Dimple Court to go towards Rashbehari Avenue… Banchharam and Bhojohori (Manna) and passing the old neighbourhood of Clark Street (near Maddox Square) where he was born
♦ Calcutta wouldn’t be the same without Madhab and Nanu, two of Aki’s closest friends
Saionee Chakraborty
My message for Aki is.... Tell t2@abp.in
