Costume designer Nirmal Das. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, April 11: From the naïve pair of Mahasweta Ray and Prasant Nanda in Sesa Srabana to current day heartthrobs Archita and Babushan, actors down generations have had their identities moulded by costumes designed by Nirmal Das. The veteran designer in the Oriya film industry has been defining the looks of actors for close to four decades.

Having designed costumes for the cast of more than 160 movies, Das, in his fifties, has observed from close quarters the good and bad times of the industry.

“When I began my career, the process of making films in the state was completely different from what we see today. It was mostly people from theatre who entered the industry,” says Das, who was himself a theatre artiste.

“I used to act in plays but when the craze for films grew and the footfall in theatres started dipping, I decided to make a shift. I knew that if I wanted to build a viable career, choosing a technical field related to films would help me,” Das says. He started observing keenly how costume designers from Mumbai and Calcutta would create the look of each character according to the script.

“I studied how professional costume designers worked and then found out that they took care of every detail of the look of a character, from costumes to jewellery and other accessories. So I started making models of clothes on a tailoring machine and soon learnt the techniques,” he says. Having worked with eminent artistes, he has seen the debuts of many.

“Since Prasant Nanda encouraged me and let me design the costumes for each of his films, I worked with debutantes he introduced me to, including the Mahasweta Ray,” says the Cuttack-based costume designer. He has also worked with Aparajita Mohanty, Uttam Mohanty, Bijay Mohanty, Tandra Ray and today’s leading artistes Sidhant Mohapatra, Anubhav Mohanty, Varsha, Archita and many more.

“It feels nostalgic to create costumes for actors for whose parents I have worked. But I would say, the ‘quick fix age’ does not allow me to give my best. Especially during songs that use a number of costumes, we are made to produce a dozen clothes in a matter of a couple of days,” laments Das.

The veteran, under whom all the current six designers catering to the Oriya film and television industry trained at some point or other, is a favourite of many.

“He has been working with us right from our second film Nagaphasa. He understands the huge responsibility he has and the importance of costumes. We trust him blindly,” says Sanjay Nayak of the well-known Brajraj movies. Actor Hari says Das is the most up-to-date when it comes to fashion.

“He keeps an eye on the current fashion all over the country. He travels a lot and flips through style magazines and gives us the perfect attire for every role,” says Hari.

Das has assisted in few Hindi films as well as designed costumes for a number of Bengali films. His daughter Julia is pursuing editing at FTII, Pune and son Raja is an assistant director here.