Erum Ali kicked about AO release

Fashion designer Erum Ali is eagerly waiting for Pongal. Director Selvaraghavan’s magnum opus, Aayirathil Oruvan, for which she has designed the costumes, will be hitting the screens on that day. After working continuously for three years on the project, the designer admits she can’t wait to watch the final product. “I’ve only seen it on the monitors while we were shooting and I believe this is a movie one should watch on the big screen,” she says.

“The movie is a mix of a lot of things — fantasy, history, adventure, etc. so we had to design two different looks for the lead characters since the first half is full of adventure and mystery while the latter half is a period film. In fact if you watch the movie, it will seem like you’re watching two different films.” Naturally, designing for two vastly differing eras translated into a lot of legwork and research. “We spent time looking at 8th century sculptures which gave an idea of the kind of costumes worn during the Chola dynasty. Since all the jewellery and even the fabrics were handmade, we had to follow the same principle, even when we got fabric specially made from Kanchipuram we had to instruct the weavers to give it a very hand-woven effect,” she adds.
Almost as challenging was the task of designing for the lead actors — Karthi, Andrea and Reemma Sen. Erum elaborates, “For example, Reemma’s character is the one who leads the team, so her costumes had to make her look powerful but not masculine. Andrea plays the character of a girl with British influences and who is heavily into art and sculpture, so her outfits needed to have more of an artistic touch. “Karthi plays a local guy who is trying to impress the two women he travels with. It’s easy to make someone look good, but dressing them up so that they impress others is quite a task!” she laughs.
But she thoroughly enjoyed working on the second half of the movie. The first part focused on a light, ‘casual chic’ look. The latter half was far more demanding. “We had loads to do, with gruelling schedules, sleepless nights. This is the biggest-ever project I’ve worked on,” she confesses. “Selvaraghavan, a tough taskmaster was also very hard to please”, she adds. “Selva is so well-read and informed that if you give him three options, he will come up with 20 more for the same. He is clear about what he wants. So even if he makes you run around, once he gets the result he wants, he freezes on it,” explains Erum.
With all this it’s no surprise that the designer has teamed up with Selva for his next project too. She confirms this, “Yes, I’m working on Selva’s next film with Vikram, but I’m only doing the look in the second half. I want to be very careful about my choices since I also have a retail business and balancing this with my movie projects can be a bit of a tightrope act. So I’m keen on working on movies which give me a lot of scope to use my creativity!”