Tollywood style files

Talk about changing trends in fashion, style and demeanour, and Telugu actors are not quite far behind from their Bollywood brethren. Effortless style. That literally describes Tollywood fashion of yesteryears. But bygones are best bygones. Today, the industry takes its fashion statement rather seriously . Be it haute couture , make-up , fitness or hairstyles - the Southern stars are doing it all to keep abreast with the latest global trends.How else would you explain Allu Arjun's arduous hours of gyming to get that six-pack , for his role in Desamuduru? Or Balakrishna's trip to the US to get his makeup right for the film Okkamogadu. Even NTR Junior's slashed off those extra kilos to reinvent his personality. Kamal Hassan, who's sometimes accused of over perfection, is known to shell out large amounts to ensure a perfect appearance. And the big daddy of them all - Rajnikanth has left everyone fascinated with his latest look. But it's not quite the first time that Tollywood's been bitten by the fashion bug. The industry has always tried keeping pace with the fads of fashion . Debutant director R Srinivasulu says,"If you're talking about NTR Jr, I'd say rewind to the days of NTR Sr. Top notch designers were flown in from Mumbai to make sure he got the right look. And even NTR's contemporaries ANR, Shoban Babu and others were styled by experts from Mumbai. But that changed with time. Tollywood started falling back on local designers . Through all this, the industry lost some of its glamour. But in this age of competition, Tollywood cannot resort to local talent alone. They are now unafraid to use talent from abroad, leave alone Bollywood."
The likes of Manish Malhotra and Neeta Lulla have worked on stars like Rajnikant, Mahesh Babu and Nagarjuna. And the change is for all to see. "Tollywood has definitely gone from being garish to more sophisticated. For instance Boys had the actors in trendy outfits," explains fashion designer Kedarnath.
This does not mean that it has compromised on its trademark style. "We're not blindly aping Bollywood. But let's accept the fact that Bollywood has the best designers. We are using their expertise while retaining our individual flavour," explains art director Ashok Kumar. Some, however, point out that it's only a small group of actors who are trendy and fashionable. As far as the megastars are concerned, it really doesn't matter what style they sport. "As long as we get to see Chiru on screen, we're happy. It really doesn't matter what he's wearing or what look he's sporting," says Swami Naidu, who is a hardcore Chiranjeevi fan.