Bhanu Athaiya fumes over tailor remark

MUMBAI: Oscar winning costume designer Bhanu Athaiya is contemplating filing a defamation suit if fashion designer Tarun Tahiliani's counsel does not apologise for insinuating that she was ‘merely a tailor'.
On Wednesday, Athaiya sent a three-page letter to the media stating, "Essentially, I was defined and referred to as being nothing more than a tailor by the respected senior counsel of Mr Tahiliani, Mr Percy Pardiwala while Tahiliani, who refers to himself as a Fashion Designer, was defined as an artist and a conceptualiser.''
Last month, the Delhi-based fashion designer had sought income tax exemption under section 80RR of the IT Act that is offered against the category of artists.The court accepted Tahiliani's counsels argument that a fashion designer is an artist and is therefore eligible for tax exemption.
In her letter, Athaiya quoted a newspaper report where the court had referred to her: "...whether a person like Bhanu Athaiya, the first Indian to win an Academy award for costume designing for the film Gandhi, would still be entitled to an exemption even though it was for a Hollywood film?''
According to the Oscar winner, Tahiliani's counsel Percy Pardiwala argued that the person who stitches a dress is not an artist, but the one who conceptualises it certainly is. "I was defined and referred to as being nothing more than a tailor by the respected senior counsel of Mr. Tahiliani,'' said Athaiya, "while Tahiliani, who refers to himself as a Fashion Designer, was defined as an `artist' and a conceptualiser.''
Athaiya goes on to say, "What was even more shocking was that the eminent presiding judge, Justice DY Chandrachud, seemed to have accepted this wholly and utterly wrong and presumptuous definition of a Costume Designer. What has even added more insult to injury is that I am a trained Artist in Fine Arts from the Sir JJ School of Arts, a Gold Medalist and a Fellow of that prestigious institution. I was also a part of the Progressive Artists Group in the 50s.''
Reacting to Athaiya's allegations, Tahiliani said, "I have no idea about this as I was not there and my case was about fashion designer not costume designers. I have the greatest respect for Bhanu Athaiya's work and her Oscar. And I presume she was not in court that day either, so I wonder who fed her with this information.''
Bollywood's costume designers Manish Malhotra and Neeta Lulla took offence to the `tailor' tag too. "Mainstream designers get glamourous celebrities like Shilpa Shetty to endorse their line but where does that glamour come from? It's from the look we give the actors ,'' argued Malhotra. "How can one question the calibre of somebody like Bhanu Athaiya?'' added Lulla
bharati.dubey@timesgroup.com