Oscar Lady
19.05.2014
India’s first Oscar
winner designer Bhanu Athaiya turned 85 last month. Thirty one years ago
she made the country proud by winning an Oscar for her costumes in Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi
shared with British counterpart John Mollo. The year was 1983 and the venue The
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. Athaiya was the only Indian HOD on the
film and the award was Bollywood was not surprised by her honour. Athaiya had been
a path breaker and changed the texture of the films she worked in with her
detailed, intricate and well researched costumes. She had worked with all the
legends of the Black & White and Color cinema be it Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor,
BR Chopra, Yash Chopra, Lekh Tandon, Ramanand Sagar, Raj Khosla, LV Prasad,
Conrad Rooks, Ashutosh Gowariker, Jabbar Patel, Vidhu Vinod Chopra.
Athaiya’s career spans
over 60 years and features male and female superstars both from Black &
White to Color films. It was said that she transformed actors on screen be it
the beautiful Meena Kumari as chotti bahu
in Saheb Biwi aur Ghulam,
Vyjayantimala in Amrapali, Hema
Malini in Meera or Johnny Mera Naam.When it came to her
work Athaiya called the shots even with legendary filmmakers be it Raj Kapoor,
Guru Dutt, Sunil Dutt or Vijay Anand and they willingly submitted to her. Two
years ago in 2012 The Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences in Los Angeles
held a collection of her works, donated by Athaiya including her Oscar
statuette. A year ago, a selection of her costume sketches was exhibited at the
East West Gallery in Honolulu as part of an exhibition celebrating 100 years of
Indian cinema.
Now Athaiya’s family
is keen to make available Athaiya’s various sketches, costumes, photographs
diligently preserved over the decades to a museum in her memory that will
archive her research for future scholars and costume designers.
Bhawana Somaaya/ Tweets @bhawana somaaya
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