Never thought creativeness to label will take over my film career: Manish Malhotra

By Nivedita

Mumbai, Aug 21 (IANS) Ace designer Manish Malhotra, who started out as a costume designer in films and has now clocked 27 years in the field, says he never imagined that one day his business of fashion and his creativeness towards his label, will take over his film career.

"I have not studied fashion and I was very passionate about movies. From painting and practice, I got into sketching and then I started learning a lot of impractical knowledge. By the time I was very established in movies, I got into mainstream and it me time to understand mainstream.

"In the last seven years, the whole vision for the label has evolved," Malhotra told IANS in an interview here.

"I never ever thought that there would be time when the business of fashion, the label and the creativeness to the label will take over my film career. I am good and blessed that today I am deciding which film I want to do.

"There is a lot of love and regard from a lot of actors. Movies are something that I cherish and love. However, the focus of today is being creative and consistently trying different things of my genre... So,cocktail dresses are part of that," he added.

Malhotra made his debut in cocktail dresses for women and bespoke suits for men with his show at Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) Winter/Festive 2017 on August 20 at the St Regis hotel here.

"It is 12 years of my label and 27 years in movies... From the last seven years, my brand has evolved and doing a lot more. I think that's why we started gowns.

"Also with LFW, I came up with black collection which I never did before. I think each time, I try to push myself to do something different and add a lot of diversity to my genre," he said.

Malhotra said that in January 2018, he is launching a women's pr?t label.

The celebrated designer's tryst with designing for films began with Juhi Chawla starrer "Swarg". He later redefined and modernised costumes in films like "Rangeela", "Raja Hindustani", "Dil Toh Pagal Hai", "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai", "Mohabbatein", "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..." and many more, giving some of Bollywood's leading actresses makeovers.

From Kajol, Karisma Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Rani Mukerji, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Preity Zinta -- dressing up such beauties and more earned him the tag of Bollywood's favourite designer.

For his show at LFW, he had two showstoppers from Bollywood -- Jacqueline Fernandez and Aditya Roy Kapur.

Will he ever present a show without the presence of Bollywood stars?

"I have done that, but I have to say that in this country, two things every designer took upto -- which is a showstopper and front row -- is what I started. People know my clothes and they know my work. They had become my brand," he said.

Coming back to his Bollywood projects, Malhotra is soon going to style Aditya for a period film which is under Dharma Productions and he has designed for Jacqueline in "Judwaa 2"

(The writer's trip was at the invitation of LFW organisers. Nivedita can be contacted at nivedita.s@ians.in)