This year, late filmmaker K Asif’s masterpiece Mughal-e-Azam (1960) completed 62 years but its influence on popular culture, theatre, and cinema refuses to fade away. Theatre director Feroz Abbas Khan’s Mughal-e-Azam: The Musical is a soulful tribute to the classic and for over six years, the lavishly mounted musical has traveled the world and won over legions of fans. And now, it has returned to grace the stage after a span of two difficult years with fourteen shows in Mumbai’s Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir.
Apart from the stunning set and spectacular song-and-dance sequences, the musical has also been lauded for its regal costumes put together by celebrity designer, Manish Malhotra. Its costume design is by far the most expensive in the history of Indian theatre. In an exclusive chat with News18, Malhotra opens up on his love for the Dilip Kumar and Madhubala starrer, creating gorgeous pieces for the latest season of Mughal-e-Azam: The Musical, working with Khan and more. Excerpts:
Since Mughal-e-Azam: The Musical is set in a completely different era, where did you draw your inspiration from? Was K Asif’s film also your reference point?
I absolutely love Mughal-e-Azam. It’s one of my favourites. From the courtly pleasures, cutlery, royal baths, decor to the ways of dressing… everything had its own sense of greatness attached to it. My inspiration was majorly drawn from the grandiosity of the Mughal period. Recreating costumes for one of Indian cinema’s epic stories for a musical play and to get an award for it from the Broadway World India Awards [was special] and might I add it was quite challenging to create 600 practical yet theatrical costumes.
In an epic musical like this one, costumes are an important tool of expression. Tell us a bit about the conversations you had with the director about it.
Working with Feroz Abbas Khan, who is a fabulous, acclaimed play director and Shapoorji (Pallonji; producer) made it all a tremendously satisfying experience. Feroz’s collaborative triumph to turn a monumental film Mughal-e-Azam into a Broadway-style musical is commendable. The designs had to speak of grandeur, glory and the extravagance of the Mughal period. The costumes had to be stage-appropriate and facilitate a quick change. It is a period piece, but it has modern sensibilities too. The designs carry forward the legacy of original characters. However, I tried to strive for the signature sheen to illuminate its grandiosity.
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Is there a difference in your approach when you work in a stage play as compared to a film?
I had the responsibility of creating garments that not only looked striking but were also stage-appropriate. I had to modify the structure of designs from my normal runway fare where the linings used in the outfits for the artists were much lighter. The entire thing was on Velcro. Velcro had to be dyed to the colour of the outfits because you have to change in a second. Someone is wearing a kurta inside, then there is sherwani and then something else inside. I had put in all the hard work in designing the costumes, which had to be ready for the primary and secondary cast at the same moment. Designing for celebrities, films, and fashion shows is entirely different from designing costumes for a periodical theatre play.
What’s the kind of response you have received for Mughal-e-Azam: The Musical?
The designing process was surreal, and the outcome was histrionic for sure. There were layers of vintage fabric, whether it be silk, Kota, Zardosi embroidery, brocades, Bandini or velvet, everything is pure and rich in the display. There is a lot of thought in that sense. But luckily, I do a lot of stage performances for the actors where I make costumes, so, that experience also helped me over here.
Are there more musicals and stage plays that you are involved with?
The other musical I have worked on is Raunak & Jassi (also directed by Khan) and we are in talks for some other projects as well.
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