Sai, at the forefront of fashion

Designer Sai, has an impressive track record in the film industry.

Designer Sai, has an impressive track record in the film industry.
Forty years experience... 2,300 films to his credit... four state awards. Meet costume designer Sai, who has ��fashioned�� the careers of several actors in the cinema industry.
Some of the most powerful men in the industry like Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vikram, Ajith, Shankar, Priyadarshan and Mani Ratnam swear by him.The 57-year-old has worked in films of five Indian languages.
The secret of his success is that he has mastered the art of last-minute repair, putting together alternative outfits at a short notice. His ability to take care of every wardrobe whim on the sets has stood him in good stead. Most of our heroes and directors have worked with well-known fashion designers, but have always come back to Sai.

Rajinikanth and Shankar had hired a famous fashion designer to do the costumes for a song in Endhiran. When they started the shoot, they found far too many costume malfunctions. Sai was called in and he made the silver coloured robot costumes. The Superstar was happy shooting in the costume which was made of natural leather, sprayed with metallic silver paint with lycra lining to make it comfortable.
Sai��s factory-like office in Saligramam houses trunks of glitzy clothing where 35 assistants are busy at their sewing machines. Explains Sai, ��I believe that south Indian mass commercial cinema is larger than life and our audiences still like their heroes to be dressed in outlandish costumes and loud colours. After consulting the director, I design costumes for heroes to suit their characters in the film.�� Says Vikram, ��Susi Ganesan, designer Chaithanya Rao and I went to Thailand and picked all the clothes for Kandasamy. But for the most important superhero character in the film, all of us believed that only Sai could make it. He did an excellent job and the costume is awesome on screen.��

When Simbudevan decided to make a cowboy film in Tamil, he went straight to Sai. The man has also done all of Priyadarshan films including his Bollywood projects, in which the heroes and heroines had their own designers. Says Priyadarshan, ��Some of the new fashion designers don��t understand the nuances of filmmaking and soon realise that colour co-ordination can go awry when seen through a lens. This gives traditional dressmakers like Sai an upper hand. Sai is practical and has a solution to all costume-related problems.��
Sai is all praise for Manish Malhotra, Neeta Lulla, Ritu Khanna and Sabyasachi Mukherjee. Says Sai, ��They are all creative people with a passion. I��m now working with Sabyasachi for Mani Ratnam��s Ravaan. He is brilliant as he uses unusual fabrics, texturing and detailing, that give an ethnic look to his creations.��
Sai signs off saying, ��I always tell my assistants that if you have a little imagination, and can make clothes to a budget, that are comfortable to wear in the dusty, hot outdoor, then you have a future.��

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