Manish Malhotra, Bollywood leading designer says to the stars that finally after the 1990s, Bollywood is becoming fashion conscious again.
“Bollywood has always been fashion conscious but I feel in the 1990s, there was a downfall in fashion and the clothes became garish and did not look good on screen. But it has definitely bounced back and is showing a lot of consciousness to incorporate stylish top-end clothes,” Malhotra said.
Malhotra started in the fashion industry in 1990 and it took him a lot of hard work to change the industry, and show them that the fashions of the movies could make a style statement. The designer says, “I have shown the path and thankfully people can now relate to the clothes worn by their heroes and heroines. It feels great and it will go on. No one can take it away from me.”
His first design was for Juhi Chawla in “Swarg”, but the movie that put him firmly at the top of the Bollywood designers was Rangeela and his costumes for Urmila Matondkar.
He is known for his innovative designs using interesting cuts and many different shades of colors. He is said to be the only one who is able to see and design costumes to capture the character perfectly. It has taken him a lot of hard work to get to were he is today, and he has designed costumes for some of Bollywoods biggest stars including: Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukerji, Shilpa Shetty and many more.
About why he was drawn to design for the actors he said, “I think I was destined to become a fashion designer. I loved movies and I could draw very well. I used to model when I was in college and then I started working in a boutique and worked for around a year. Then I thought why not try my hand at the movies and then everything fell into place.”
