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Rajeev Masand : Costume Drama
This week's Open Magazine column from Rajeev Masand is an interesting one.
She starred in as many as five films last year, only one of which made any money at the box-office. But she’s regarded as a competent actress who can be relied upon to carry off difficult roles.
Difficult, as it turns out, is a word that’s being used often to describe this leading lady, who Bollywood insiders say has been giving her designers a hard time lately. Allegedly, the actress has instructed the producers of her films not to give credit on screen to the costume designers who create her outfits. She’s believed to have said she does her own styling, and pretty much tells her designers what kind of costumes to make for her. Hence, she doesn’t think designers deserve credit for dressing and styling her. She’s told her designers that they ought to be happy with their pay-cheque from the producers, and shouldn’t expect anything more.
The designers, for their part, complain that the actress sees herself as something of a self-styled genius and while she does give inputs on her costumes, by no means can her involvement be described as ‘designing’ or ‘styling’. At least two designers have complained that the actress has an attitude problem, and have vowed never to work with her again. They also add that it’s unfair to be denied credit on screen, because designing for films doesn’t yield big pay-cheques anyway. And getting no credit for their work is like insult on injury.
One leading designer jokes that if the actress doesn’t mend her ways soon, she might just have to find out exactly how good a designer and stylist she actually is, because no respectable professional will work with her again.
