Neeta Lulla Asked SLB 'Can I Leave?' As He Wanted To Change Aishwarya Rai's Climax Saree In 'Devdas'

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas, was an adaption of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's 1917 Bengali novel of the same name. The movie featured three of the most famous actors, including Shah Rukh as 'Devdas', Aishwarya Rai as 'Paro' and Madhuri Dixit as 'Chandramukhi.' While the movie is highly regarded as a cult classic, everyone who had been associated with the film bagged landmarks in their respective careers. The plot, acting mettle of the cast, and direction already got the acclaim it deserved, but along with it, the production design, costume design, and every aspect received special praise. It had received five National Film Awards in its name, and three of these honours were on other design aspects.

Neeta Lulla recalls a challenge she faced while preparing Aishwarya's final saree on Devdas

The costume design section of Devdas was handed over to Neeta Lulla, Abu Jani, Sandeep Khosla, and Reza Sharriffi, and they did their job so perfectly that it brought them the National Award 2003 for the 'Best Costume Design' category. Recently, Neeta Lulla sat for an interview and shared a challenge that she faced while working on Devdas, mainly during a climax scene. Talking to News18, Neeta Lulla stated that she had made Aishwarya a white-red saree in a single night. Talking about the same, Neeta stated that the sarees on the film generally were 12-14 metres long, and for this, they had to join two sarees together to make one. Neeta Lulla can be quoted as saying:

“I had only overnight to create that look. The whole film featured saris that were 12–14 metres long. I had cut up two or three saris to create the entire ensemble. For the final scene, Sanjay felt he needed a cotton (Durga) Puja saree.”

Well, Sanjay Leela Bhansali needed a cotton saree for the final scene in Devdas. There's no denying the fact that the ensembles in the films were not only pieces of clothes, but actually very rich in emotional storytelling, and deeply rooted in culture, and that was why Sanjay Leela Bhansali wanted only a traditional Bengali Durga puja saree for the final scene, which had to carry fire at the end of the pallu, as required by the script.

Neeta Lulla said Sanjay Leela Bhansali wanted to change the costume just the night before the shoot

In the same interview, Neeta Lulla stated that Sanjay Leela Bhansali wanted to change the final saree of Aishwarya Rai, just the night before the shooting. She mentioned that when they were trying out the final outfit at around 7 p.m., SLB came to Aishwarya's van and mentioned that he wanted the saree's pallu to catch on fire, and thus, he felt that it should be long enough.

Hearing this, Neeta asked SLB if she could leave, which left the director confused. Neeta didn't quit, but she called the fabric vendors to open the store at 11 p.m. She collected the material and asked her team members to start with the embroidery. This is how, by 8:30 a.m., the next morning, they finalised the costume. Neeta Lulla can be quoted as saying:

"We had the sari, and everything was ready. The night before the shoot at Filmistan, we were in Aishwarya’s van, looking at the outfit around 7 pm after pack-up. At that moment, Sanjay said his idea was to have the sari’s pallu catch fire and felt it wouldn’t be long enough. Hearing this, I said, ‘Can I leave?’ He was confused. I left the set and started making calls, trying to figure out a solution. I called one of my fabric vendors and got him to open his shop at 11 pm. In the meantime, I had asked my team of embroiderers to start working on borders and everything. By 8.30 am the next day, we had two 13-metre saris ready on set.”

Did you know that the ensembles of Madhuri were worth lakhs on Devdas?

If the reports are to be believed, the cost budget of Devdas was around Rs. 2-3 crores. The opulence of Aishwarya and Madhuri's outfits still remained fresh in our memories. Financial Express and Schoop Whoop reported that each of Madhuri's outfits had a cost of more than or near around Rs. 15 lakh. She also was all set to wear a 30kg lehenga for a song, which later was replaced with a 16kg lehenga. A total of 600 sarees were brought from Kolkata for Aishwarya, and they were stitched together in 8-9m style, which took 3 hours on a daily basis.

What do you think about Neeta Lulla's revelations?

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