Manish Malhotra shares his experience working with Kareena and Karisma

I have known Karishma when she gave her first shot 20 years back for Nischay and I have known Kareena for the same span of time. The nicest part about working with the two sisters is the complete trust they give you in terms of relying on you about the cut, colour, style and the overall look.

Even though I am a huge fan of movies and Bollywood is my life, the two have never interfered with the relationship I’ve developed with other reigning queens over a period of time.

They have never felt insecure and even though I was dressing both Karishma and Urmila Matondkar when they were competing with each other, I think they trusted me implicitly as I never played favourites and did my best to make them look glamorous.

I managed to make them all feel good, it is because as a person I am very private and I like my own space.

I may party with them, chat for endless hours, but I will never gossip, back bite or try to be nosey about their love life. In fact, when Urmila and I had gone to Amsterdam many years ago for IIFA, I noticed Urmila was on the phone endlessly, but I never asked her who she was talking to and why, so she turned around and said, “Manish aren’t you curious?” I just smiled. I give all my muses space because I respect my own space.

From Aishwarya to Preity Zinta I am dressing all of them and I know what they want and how they like to look, in keeping with their personality, so I am very sure about my craft.

Like Kareena knew I was going to be dressing Priyanka in a cream kurta for Aamir’s bash for Imran’s wedding, she never questioned why I gave her a black sari.

She is a fabulous person and even when I stopped working with Karishma for nine months after she did Kuch Kuch Hota Hai because of a disagreement, she got us together again.

Kareena likes experimenting and feels imperfect is perfect, while Karishma likes everything stitched and all white, so they are quite different in their tastes.

Plus, I must add that Karishma, when she started working, the industry was raw and new and people were not used to the concept of a male designer, but that wasn’t the case with Kareena, she came in when filmmakers were open to shopping abroad and one could play with international designers, so there was a sea change in their attitude. Maybe that’s why Kareena has a very casual approach to dressing and never says, “Pin me up from here and there.”

While Karishma is more methodical and planned.

The two sisters are very close and they know that I am never apologetic about loving commercial cinema and neither do I intellectualise design.

I love bold colours and my design sensibility is quite glamorous, so they love it.

Plus I am an Indian wear addict, I have never loved opulent gowns with plunging necklines. I think the two sisters look best in saris and Anarkali kurtas, which always manages to bring out their inner diva.

As told to Asmita Aggarwal

source : deccanchronicle

Posted on 18 Mar 2011 by admin