Fine Punjabi cut

Jasmine Singh

Not too long ago, Punjabi singer-actors and only actors would arrange, rather pick clothes to be worn on shoots from here and there. Today, each one of them has a favourite designer whose gowns, traditional suits they like to sport at various events! Meet designers of the Punjabi entertainment industry, who have given a spin to the look of the artistes in a big way.

Although they have their set of challenges to face, but at the end of the day their job is to help the artiste look awesome on screen.

Traditional flavour

Punam Cheema, a Chandigarh-based designer of Prasuci-fame, is known for her traditional and Indo-Western wear. She has been designing clothes for female artistes in the industry from 2016. Her first designer-wear suit was worn by actress Japji Khera in one of her films, and thereafter there was no looking back. “I get orders to design for films, solo artistes and events now,” shares the soft-spoken designer who travels across the country to source the right material for the garments. “Punjabi stars, especially the women, are no less than Bollywood actresses; they are totally clued into fashion, they know what they want and this becomes a challenge for any Punjabi designer,” adds Punam, who is makes sure her designs are never repeated. “This is the other challenge; every actress ideally wants a garment that is unique to her, a design that is not worn or should not be worn by any other actress.”

Competing with B-town

Designers from the entertainment industry are rubbing shoulders with Bollywood designers now. They might not be that popular or be walking the ramp with their muse, but they are certainly giving over-the-edge designing ideas.

Nimrat Kahlon from Dhaagey Creations is popular with celebrities like Nimrat Khaira, Sonia Mann, Himanshi Khurana. “These are trendsetters; what they wear becomes a trend, so while creating a costume I have to keep that in mind.”

While Nimrat sees every costume of hers as a challenge and every client of her as a celebrity, she has to keep the star value in mind while designing. “For a recent event, I had designed a traditional outfit, an Anarkali suit, for Nimrat because she had asked me to make one. Believe me...I have got so many orders for it from various other celebrities after the event.”

Ethnic touch

Yet another designer Deep Matharoo of Kasidaa-fame, who has done her masters in designing, will be making her movie debut with Jimmy Shergill’s up and coming film Daana Paani. She has designed costumes for actress Simmi Chahal. Deep personally likes designing traditional clothes for actresses. “I want my clothes to reflect Punjabi culture and this is what Punjabi actresses mainly look for. They know that in Punjab, fans like to see them in traditional suits or ethnic-wear and this is what I give them — Anarkalis, plazzos and shararas.”

Changing times

Punjabi films are evolving, and so are the artistes. They believe in creating their own styles rather than wearing what the producer asks them to or what they feel is stylish enough.

Actress Mandy Takhar carries both ethnic and western-wear pretty well. Her favourite designer, however, is Rachit Khanna, who designs both western and traditional wear. Actress Diljott too votes for Rachit Khanna for western outfits; The Golden Hanger, Deep Matharoo, The Landmark Studio for other ocassions. “Our costumes and choice of designers depends pretty much on the occasion, whether it is a private event, a star-night, song-shoot or movie-shoot. One thing remains common —what we wear will be seen in the public eye as a piece of our image and we just can’t go wrong with it.”