Kalki 2898 AD: Costume Designer Archana Rao Felt 'Unreal' After Big B's Transformation As Ashwatthama | EXCLUSIVE

kalki 2898 ad: costume designer archana rao felt 'unreal' after amitabh bachchan's transformation as ashwatthama | exclusive

"It blew my mind," declared the National Award-winning fashion designer Archana Rao, upon learning about the casting choice for Ashwatthama, the oldest man alive. He was the first character conceptualised by Archana and her team for India's biggest film of the year - Kalki 2898 AD. It was with Nag Ashwin's first film Mahanti, that forayed her into the world of costume designing and has since become synonymous with crafting cinematic wardrobes that breathe life into characters.

Hailing from Hyderabad, Archana clinched the National Film Award for Best Costume Design for Mahanati, where she meticulously dressed pivotal characters portrayed by Vijay Devarakonda and Samantha Ruth Prabhu. Now, she has designed for the entire ensemble cast of Kalki 2898 AD.

In an exclusive interview with Zoom, ace fashion designer Archana Rao delves into her creative process, expressing gratitude to her "extremely hardworking costume team." During our conversation, she discusses her initial collaboration with Nag Ashwin, offering insights into decoding the iconic looks of actors, including Amitabh Bachchan, Prabhas, Kamal Haasan, and Deepika Padukone in the film.

What drew you to wanting to work on this particular project?

Basically I started designing for movies with Nagi's first film which was Mahanati. That was my first movie. So, it started off with that and we also did another short film together for Netflix called Pitta Kathalu and that third project together actually. So it's always been a pleasure working with Nagi because he just has such immense trust in the people that he gets on board for any project that it just feels amazing.

Can you talk about your collaboration with director Nag Ashwin on the movie?

The first briefing or the first narration that Nagi had given me was four years ago. And told me a very little bit. He just told me a little bit about the film that will be there in the movie.

And when Ashwatthama came up, my first question was, who's playing him? And the minute he said, Amitabh sir playing him, it just blew my mind. Because I couldn't have imagined a better Ashwatthama. And that was also my first character design that we did for the film. It started off and from day one, I knew it was going to be a big project.

The project of this big did need my entire dedication. So I've been solely dedicated to this film for the last four years.

Did his vision for the film match yours for the costumes?

In the movie, what you could have seen in the trailer, you would have noticed how different worlds that we have created, right? You have Kashi, the complex, and Shambala. Before each of these worlds, we had a lot of sessions together. It was a very collaborative process with Nagi, Swapna Dutt-Priyanka Dutt, the producers, Nitin, the production designer and Djordje Stojiljkovic, the DOP. So we'd have all these conversations about how the worlds should come together because the language had to match. From design, and costumes to props, everything had to come together in a similar language. Otherwise, it wouldn't have happened. So this world-building that we did, we had several meetings and we had a lot of R&D before creating any of the costumes. We had multiple look tests.

So, every character that we built with every tattoo or any scar or any texture on the costume, everything had a reason for it.

Decoding the whole process of creating the costume for Prabhas, Deepika, Amitabh and Kamal

For the movie, what we've done is, because there were so many different worlds, we took our time to decide the language and then we would get into it. We designed for different worlds, one by one. We created different characters one by one. Then finally everything came together.

So for Ashwatthama's role, because he is known to be the oldest man alive, we had to explore how his fabric would age over time. So we wanted to look like the inspiration behind his look was to make him look as old as a tree. So we tried to dress his fabric, we tried to make it as sheer as possible with our manual design processes. The shading of the cloth was also aged manually and we tried to create a textile that looks like it's hanging by its last thread, but also looks true to Ashwatthama as a character.

You would have noticed Kashi in the trailer. So Kashi is known to be the last civilisation in the world in our movie. So we experimented a lot with the synthetics because we were trying to ideate what kind of fabrics wouldn't composed easily. So, we narrowed it down to synthetics to a lot of plastics and we tried to create textiles out of it and then furthermore actually distressed them to make it look like how they would age so near down the line and that's how we created the language for Kashi, you will see a lot of synthetics.

At the same time, we try to make it very Indian because you will see a guy walking around in lungi or a girl or a woman trying to drape a sari out of these kinds of materials. So staying true to the root of it being Indian, we try to create this world.

Expressing gratitude to the team, Archana said, "It was incredibly overwhelming because I was so emotional watching all of it come together because it's been four long years to arrive at what we've made. So, it was just a great feeling."

"The stars translated beautifully on screen. Because I come from a fashion background. I run a brand and Mahanati is where my journey with costume design came into play. So over time, ever since Mahanati, I've been working with Vyjayanthi Films. They've literally handheld me trying to teach me how clothes transform themselves on screen, completely different from designing for a brand. So, as the movie progressed I understood, how light shines off certain materials how it looks better how some colours immediately look nicer on screen. So, all these skills that I've picked up on the way and then looking back at the movie, it just felt so unreal and beautiful at the same time," she further added.

Is there a particular costume you designed for this movie that you’re the proudest of? Is there a look you're most proud of or a design you were most excited to see come together?

I think the costume that I'm truly sentimental about is it will have to be Ashwatthama because that was the first costume we created. And Raya, the kid in the movie, Raya and Ashwatthama were the first costumes we made and I just have an emotional bond with it.

And the first look test that we had with Bachchan sir also, was just so spot on and he just transformed into Ashwatthama the minute we saw him. So after his hair and makeup and once the costume was put on, it was just so beautiful. But that's something unfortunate about it.

Even, on day one, when we were shooting in a temple set, it just looked so unreal that I still have goosebumps from that first shot that we took.

Talking about the challenges on the set, she said, "Of course, I mean that's just the nature of the business honestly. But there were expectations at times, we had just thousand people on set we had to make new costumes on the go all the time. But in the beginning, what seemed overwhelming towards the end it was kind of doable for me. So, we bought as a designer as well because this movie with the kind of expectations we had, and as a costume team, we really delivered perfectly.

Kamal Haasan mentioned that it took a long time to create his first look and we saw a little glimpse in the trailer. So how was the process for creating his first look as well?

So for Kamal sir, we collaborated with his personal stylist as well, Amritha Ram. And for him, we had worked on several concept arts. Honestly, I don't want to reveal too much because the movie has just been released. I don't want to talk too much about him, but it was a work in progress It took a while and several look tests for us to finally arrive at it.

How do you navigate the priority of ensuring an actor looks their best while maintaining authenticity to the character through costume design?

I think the costume will obviously have to be seen the thing is we got very lucky with all of our actors. They were all great. The world that we were creating was so unique that the character had to be 100 per cent into it, to have that dedication to look the part. So all the costumes had a reason behind it. And the actors absolutely enjoyed it. Like, none of our actors are looking picture perfect with make-up and hair done. They had to look the part and everybody was.