Aishwarya Lekshmi extends support for costume designer Stephy Xavior

Actress Aishwarya Lekshmi extends her support for State award-winning movie costume designer Stephy Xavior, for opening up about the ill-treatment she received from a lady filmmaker, who is a WCC member. “Im thankful you finally decided to speak about this. Govind Vasantha . Saw this ? Anything to add ? (sic),” Aishwarya commented on the Facebook post the designer has posted.
After filmmaker Vidhu Vincent signing off from Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) and calling out names of people from the organization for showing double standards, costume designer Stephy Xavior has opened up about a lady filmmaker treating her badly.In a Facebook post, Xavior has revealed that back in 2017, a lady filmmaker who enjoys a high position in WCC and also screened her movie at various International film festivals had approached her to design costumes for the movie, but didn’t pay the remuneration. In the post, the designer said that she trusted the designer and hence didn't ask an advance amount, or make an agreement, and worked for the movie for its first schedule. Stephy Xavior also added that, after almost completing the pre-production and trial of the last schedule, she asked about remuneration and because of it, the filmmaker removed her from the project, even without giving a clear explanation. And when the costume designer reacted about it, the filmmaker said a mass dialogue that, "I stepped into cinema, when Stephy was born.”
The costume designer went on adding that her name was nowhere in the movie when it was released and they didn’t give her credit or salary for the work. Stephy also divulged details about how FEFKA General Secretary B Unnikrishnan has allegedly settled issue and not brought it out as a weapon to attack the WCC.
Here’s the full post.

Stephy who has worked on many Malayalam movies like 'Guppy', 'Ezra', ‘Sunday Holiday’, 'Angamaly Diaries' etc, has won Kerala State Film Award for Best Costume Designer for the movie 'Guppy'.
(Image courtesy: Facebook)