Neeta Lulla Recalls Hand-Painting Sridevi’s Outfit for ‘Lamhe’

Mumbai–National Award-winning costume designer Neeta Lulla has recalled how she hand-painted fabric to create an outfit that matched Sridevi’s vision for the 1991 film “Lamhe.”

In a video shared online, Lulla said Sridevi wanted bandhani skirts and crop tops for two scenes in the Yash Chopra-directed film, but the specific color combinations she requested were unavailable in the market.

“Sometimes the simplest outfits require the maximum amount of work. There were two scenes in the film where Sridevi wanted a bandhani skirt with a crop top. One was in a shopping sequence, and the other was when she was narrating her story in front of a palace,” Lulla said.

The designer said the outfits required blue and maroon bandhani fabrics, but Sridevi wanted white bandhani patterns on maroon and yellow patterns on blue.

“How difficult is it to get a blue or a maroon bandhani? Not difficult, right? But here was the catch. Sridevi said, ‘Can I get a white bandhani on maroon and a yellow bandhani on blue?’ That was absolutely difficult to find,” she said.

Unable to locate the designs, Lulla had the outfits made and then took them home, where she painted the patterns onto the fabric by hand.

“So, what do we do? I asked the master to make the outfits, took them home with fabric paints, and actually painted white bandhani on the maroon fabric and yellow bandhani on the blue fabric,” she said.

During the fitting, Sridevi noticed that the material felt stiffer than traditional bandhani fabric.

“When I took them back and we did the fittings with her, she said, ‘It feels slightly stiff. What is it?’ Because bandhani doesn’t usually feel stiff. I said, ‘I painted the bandhani.’ She had such a laugh about it,” Lulla recalled.

The designer said the experience reflected the determination required to create costumes for films.

“We don’t give up. We just do whatever it takes—whether it’s painting, stitching, embroidering, or anything else. But that is the beauty and the fun of creating film costumes,” she said.

In the caption accompanying the video, Lulla wrote that creative solutions often emerge when difficulties arise and said the outfit was completed through instinct and a determination to bring Sridevi’s vision to life.

“Lamhe” featured Sridevi in a dual role as a mother and daughter. The film also starred Anil Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman, Anupam Kher, Deepak Malhotra and Dippy Sagoo. (Source: IANS)