For Vidya Sriimurali, designing clothes is her first love. The star wife whose creativity and flair can be seen in many Kannada films, enjoys designing for husband and actor Sriimurali since ‘Ugramm’ days. She notes that his recent film ‘Bharaate’ was the most fun to work in.
Vidya who did a fashion designing course, loves making clothes and wanted to know more about fabrics. “Honestly, I did the course only to design clothes for myself. But the passion grew,” she says.
She started designing for films with her brother Prashanth Neel’s directorial debut ‘Ugramm’ in 2014.
“I remember going through the scripting process with my brother, which is how I understood the tone of the movie.The film had raw elements and it needed such outfits. I was comfortable working with Prashanth,” she says.
SriiMurali played a middle-class man in ‘Rathavara’ which demanded a boy-next-door look. “That was easy for me. We did a lot of check-patterned outfits for him in the film,” she says.
Vidya adds that in ‘Mufti’ Sriimurali played a raw character. “He plays an undercover cop in the film and we used a lot of dark colours. The challenging part was that I could not repeat any looks from ‘Ugramm’,” she says.
The film was special for her as she also designed some looks for Shivarajkumar in it. “I suggested the ‘lungi’ look; he took time to agree to it.
He pulled it off very well,” she adds. ‘Bharaate’ was a colourful experience, she says.
“When I met Chethan, the director of the film, he told me that four different looks were required. I worked a lot with shirts that had block prints for the scenes in Rajasthan, and with linen for a few looks.”
“I had complete freedom. Chethan was particular about using bright colours but my husband is not comfortable with the same,” says Vidya.
She adds that Sriimurali is picky about what he wears. “Even for a trial session, he would touch the fabric and if he didn’t like the feel of it, he would refuse to wear it. Convincing him to don the looks was quite a task (laughs),” says Vidya.
Vidya observes that the actor likes breathable and comfortable wear. “Give him ‘mal’ or cotton and he will readily wear it. His wardrobe is filled with clothes in whites, blacks, and browns,” she says.
Insta Trivia
The designer, who loves sharing bits of her life on Instagram including moments with Sriimurali and their children, has a 1.02 lakh fan following.