Rukmini Krishnan: Dressing up the stars
Agnivarsha
"Seema Latif (in the production side) had heard of my work in Hey Ram and got in touch with me. I met Arjun Sajnani and designed about 850 costumes (350 for artistes, 500 for the crowd). Amitabh Bachchan, Nagarjuna, Raveena Tandon, Milind Soman and Sonali Kulkarni wore my costumes."
Amitabh’s costume included a dhoti, cummerbund, tissue jacket (not a kurta) and gold crown (also designed by Rukmini). She remembers an incident where she had to take a final look at Amitabh before he went for the shot. "He was a thorough professional. He saw a moustache lying around and asked my opinion on whether he should sport it. When I said no, he threw it away and did the shot."
Rukmini shared a wonderful relationship with other artistes too. "I was not supposed to design for Raveena, but eventually landed up doing so. I gave her a sari skirt (which could be wrapped around) and a bustier. Raveena liked a black outfit made out of an Irukkal sari sourced near Hampi (where the film was shot) and took it with her."
Her designing effort in Agnivarsha fetched her a nomination for Best Costume Design at a film award show. "I don't keep track of all this," says Rukmini. "I didn't even know of it. My brother and sister-in-law who happened to see the programme told me about the nomination." Eventually, the award went to someone else.