The Voice of Fashion
Will Oscar awards for the best song and the best documentary short film—both wins from the cinema of the South, change how we report on celebrity fashion?
Will the two big wins at the 2023 Oscars change how most sections of the ‘English’ fashion media back home notices the costumes of film teams from Tamil-Telugu film industries? Now that they have conquered the world without PR-publicity cliques from Mumbai-Delhi, will we tweak content around celebrity fashion which remains synonymous with Bollywood?
Before we get political, let’s first roar with many echoes of three cheers.
For the victory of the RRR (Rise, Revolt, Roar) team. For music composer MM Keeravani and lyricist KS Chandrabose’s “Naatu Naatu” musical joydom. For actors Ram Charan and NT Rama Rao Jr’s volatile dance energy which leaves spectators both gobsmacked as well in dynamic movement as infectious response to the song. For filmmaker Kartiki Gonsalves’s (The Elephant Whisperers) ability to speak to the world through a beautifully simple film on elephant love.
At the 95th Academy Awards in Los Angeles held on March 12, the standing ovation for Keeravani and Chandrabose, as they joined the hallowed hall of global cinematic fame was also an acknowledgement of an elephant in the room from India. In the form of musical and filmmaking talent. Also through the sentiment-wearing actor Deepika Padukone, dressed to stun in a silk velvet Louis Vuitton gown. “If you don’t know “Naatu Naatu”, you are about to,” she said as she presented the RRR crew to Dolby Theatre’s audience. Then she looked emotionally moved when the winners were announced.
A remarkable doff to Indian weaving in reality and metaphor came from film producer Guneet Monga who accepted, with Gonsalves, the trophy for Best Documentary Short—The Elephant Whisperers. Monga wore a crimson silk Banarasi sari with elephant motifs woven on it by Ekaya. It was a message of meaning. Gonsalves wore a Rahul Mishra couture gown from his recent collection, ‘Cosmos’. Director SS Rajamouli, who had attended the Golden Globes in black and red dhoti-kurta-dupatta ensemble, once again wore the dhoti to the Oscars. This time a white-cream one with a long, mauve kurta.
There were others from the RRR team wearing India thoughtfully. Ram Charan’s black velvet bandhgala by Shantnu Nikhil had brooch-like embroidery on it while NTR Jr’s sherwani by Gaurav Gupta had an embroidered tiger. Ram Charan’s wife Upasana Kamineni wore a densely embroidered, no-zari sari, the colour of ivory by Jayanti Reddy and jewellery by Bina Goenka.
Keeravani, who wore a deep green sherwani set with black embroidery, could have worn anything and we wouldn’t have cared. As nothing could have eclipsed his elated preparedness (almost) for the victory. He was just living the climax of an event that he had presumably dreamt and un-dreamt dozens of times in his wakefulness and sleep. A delighted Chandrabose by his side.
Now the Politics
Earlier, when the “Naatu Naatu” song sung by Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava won the best original song award at the Golden Globes, the victory whipped a celebratory applause in India. For the song, the dance, the lilting, dynamic melody. Not the costumes. We The Feeple—the fashion media—mostly ignored writing smart pieces on Rajamouli’s dhoti, Keeravani’s sherwani or the twinning saris of their wives, who had both arrived on the Globes red carpet in silk saris with broad borders and contrasting colours. There were mentions here and there of course, but no congratulatory posts from the Mumbai-Delhi fashion media (TVOF included) on the what, why, how, of these clothes.
Other Indian representations at the Oscars have met with far more hyped responses—remember AR Rahman and his wife in Sabyasachi Mukherjee ensembles for Slumdog Millionaire’s Jai Ho? Rahman has always been bashful about self-publicity and is from the ‘South’ of India, but couturier Sabyasachi was even in those days among the stars of Indian fashion. The dice fell that way. Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor and Irrfan’s tuxedos (they were there also for Slumdog Millionaire) were noticed but not gushed about as much.
An aggressive, well-networked team of internationally connected stylists-publicists, who are “good friends” with Mumbai’s film stars, or with top fashion designers—a clique who ‘like’ each other on Instagram aids one kind of publicity frenzy. Without that, getting well-known designers (who have their own vested interest in publicising their starry clothes) to loan outfits or make bespoke, paid-for couture and get the Delhi-Mumbai fashion press to report on it is perhaps not as easy. What sounds like a logistical challenge also hints to a Bollywood versus South divide in the games fashion media plays around the politics of celebrity appearance.
Are we too tuned in and ready to applaud famous designers and stylists who work with ‘Bollywood’? Especially when they are dressing Hindi cinema stars?
For the ‘South’—in this case Telugu (RRR) and Tamil film industries (The Elephant Whisperers is set in Tamil Nadu), we are not half as curious.
This was exactly the question we raised at an internal editorial meeting this January around the Golden Globes red carpet appearances. And then, embarrassingly enough, did nothing about it. Would a Karan Johar film or appearance from the allegedly ‘nepo gang’ of celebs have got a similar partial-ignore? Therein lies the rub.
Now that we have the biggest wins for India in the form of Oscars, plus Gonsalves in a Rahul Mishra gown, Monga in an Ekaya sari, NTR Jr in custom Gaurav Gupta, let’s reload the question.
Unmissably it is India’s ‘South’ that has won. Let’s wait and watch how this changes, if it does, the nature of the ‘collaboration’ between the mainstream fashion industry, Bollywood-favouring stylists of Mumbai and the film stars of South India. Will it also change how and what we report on celebrity fashion without the ubiquitous term ‘Bollywood’ getting into every second sentence? I definitely hope so.
