Actress Priyanka Chopra will don two distinct looks for the remake of 1973 film Zanjeer, says designer Pria Kataria Puri, who is making her Bollywood foray with the movie. Priyanka plays the role of Mala in the movie, directed by Apoorva Lakhia. "In the first half of 'Zanjeer' when she's abroad, Priyanka would be dressed as a woman entrepreneur should be dressed. You see, in today's times, a working woman from India doesn't stand out at the airport. She looks like any chic well-dressed woman from any part of the world," said Puri. "Later, when Priyanka's character comes to India, she gets more colourful in her sartorial expression. You would notice that even when an Indian girl in India dresses in western clothes, there is a dash of Indianness in her clothes.
She may wear shorts, but it would be orange in colour. Priyanka's clothes would reflect her changed geo-political mindset," she added. Interestingly the designer and Priyanka's character share a similar background. "Like Priyanka's Mala in 'Zanjeer', I am an NRI working out of a foreign country. So I instinctively understand the clothes that Priyanka should wear. I often see actresses in our clothes looking wow. But they don't seem to be dressed in character." The designer has so far done her globally-feted clothes from Kuwait, where her husband works. She also flies to San Franscisco at least twice a month to meet her daughter who studies in the US. But her heart has always been fully 'Hindustani'.
"You can say, fully filmy. I love Hindi films and I love the way the heroines dress up, though very often I've felt that they don't dress in character. But I can't sleep without watching a Bollywood film every night," said Puri. So what has kept this "fully filmy" designer away from Bollywood so far? "I insisted on a bound script which I never got. 'Zanjeer' is the first film I've said yes to. One of the reasons is the director Apoorva Lakhia, who' a friend. The other reason is Priyanka Chopra, who according to me, is the most international actress from Bollywood.
"She can carry off any look. She understands clothes, and she knows so much about fabric! I was amazed by her knowledge and her ability to put forward her thoughts on how her character must dress. We were instantly on the same page when we met." Puri especially loved Lakhia's brief on Priyanka's character. "He was the first director who gave me a hard-bound script. Earlier I refused offers because I didn't get a script. For me it's very important to know the character's graph to be able to dress her properly. Because of the script, I got to know Priyanka's character Mala thoroughly before I decided on her look."
