Promising future in COSTUMES DESIGN

For youth attracted by the glitz, glamour and lights of the film and television industry, new career opportunities are available. To a lengthening list add costumes and accessories design.

Despite 95 percent of the estimated 1,500-2,000 feature films produced annually in India flopping at the box office with Mumbai-based studios and hastily incorporated firms of Bollywood contributing most heavily to production and flops-mysteriously the flow of funds into the film (and television) industry shows no signs of drying up. Production budgets are getting bigger, exotic foreign locales are the norm and costumes and special effects are becoming brighter and more spectacular.

As a consequence, a spate of new career opportunities have opened up for ambitious youth attracted by the glitz, glamour and bright lights of the film and television industry. Among them: sound, lighting, continuity, catering, transportation, choreography and make-up specialists. And to this list add the newly emergent specialisation of costumes and accessories design.

A costumes designer is an expert professional who advises the director to dress characters appropriately and credibly to enhance the overall impact of a film or television show. For instance, for historical or period narratives, costumes designers have to undertake extensive research to ascertain how people from different strata of society were dressed at the time, and commission clothes and costumes. Whether a film is set in Victorian England, village India at the time of independence (as in the hit movie Lagaan) or in 21st-century urban India, clothing characters appropriately enhances actors' appeal and adds value and authenticity to the audio-visual experience of audiences.