Mane mania
Anniyan (2005): Vikram as Remo, walking down the ramp with Yana Gupta in his arms — admit it, all our hearts skipped a beat. But it wasn’t just the girls; even teenage boys and men slightly went crazy over his various hairstyles. What really caught on was the fact that a man actually straightened his hair for a role, got blonde highlights, and actually pulled it off! Grey contact lenses too were in demand.
Ghajini (2005): Likewise, Suriya who is normally seen with wavy hair, decided to straighten his hair for the character of Sanjay Ramaswamy. Naturally, namma ooru pasanga followed suit!
Kannuku mai azhagu
Pachakili Muthucharam (2007): Jyothika swept us off our feet with her performance in the film, but created an even stronger impact with her appearance. One simple line of kohl (kajal) with a bright red bindi and of course, the titillating silver nose ring. This paired with silver jewellery did the trick for all girls, who absolutely fell in love with the trend.
Not just a damsel in distress
Yaradi Nee Mohini (2008): It was after this movie that women took to wearing more western formal outfits to office — Nayanthara did it, so shall we! Her authoritative character, well at least in the first half, added to the charm.
Naanum Rowdy Dhaan (2015): From then, Nayan has evolved into an elegant, much-loved heroine. In a place like Chennai where ethnic meets uber, her costumes in this film were a huge hit. Long skirts paired with T-shirts and the adorable hair band — it is the perfect combination of comfort, class and in Nayan’s case, cuteness!
Mad over Madras checks
Paruthiveeran (2007): These checks first got noticed because Chennai’s trademark lungis were stitched with this fabric. A classic example would be Karthi and his chitthapu’s look in Paruthiveeran.
Paiya (2010): Redefining the Madras checks through shirts instead of lungis came about with yet again a Karthi-starrer Paiya. The trend of wearing checked formal shirts (unbuttoned) over a white vest and denims picked up after this film.
Boho made a comeback
Vanakkam Chennai (2013): Priya Anand was seen carrying a black leather fringe back during the first few scenes of the movie. Coincidentally, the boho craze came back so these bags were in much demand.
Vijay na summava?
Thalaiva (2013): The movie may have done only average business, but Ilayathalapathi created ripples among the youth with his fashion. While many went gaga over aviators, Vijay breezily walked in with a smart white shirt, jeans and wayfarers! Right from the biggest showrooms to even roadside shops, these glasses were all that got sold.
Some salt, some spice
Mankatha (2011): It all started here, when Ajith decided that growing old was something natural, and he wasn’t ashamed of it. Instead of dyeing his hair, he just let it be — thus was born the salt-and-pepper trend. It followed even in his later movies like Arrambam (2013), Veeram (2014, Yennai Arindhaal and Vedalam (2015).
Magic of simplicity
Ok Kanmani (2015):
Nithya Menen looked absolutely gorgeous throughout the movie. The best part was that all of her clothes are something every Chennai girl could relate to, and more importantly, easily find! Her John Lenon style glasses, palazzo pants and ethnic sleeveless jackets emerged as favourites.
Mallu macho man
Premam (2015): Even though this isn’t a Tamil movie, we just had to feature it. Nivin Pauly’s black shirt and white veshti with a grown-out beard and aviators went viral all across the state — we don’t hink it was such a big fad even in Kerala!
Superstar - need we say more?
Enthiran (2010): Anything Rajinikanth touches turns into gold. The same applies with his look in the song Kadhal Anukkal — side-burns, beard and the shiny silver and red aviators. Men were flocking barbers for months to get a similar style as the Superstar’s! Aishwarya Rai was not far behind in setting a trend through Enthiran. The black and gold costume she was seen sporting in Irumbile Oru Idhayam was revolutionary for two reasons — black tank tops paired with black denims, as well as smoky eyes.
Eptiome of elegance
Vinnaithandi Varuvaya (2010): Trisha in that gorgeous green and red sari with simple kemp (temple) jewellery — this made everyone look up at her in admiration! Hats off Gautham Menon, for giving us one of the most popular fashion trends. To this date, women across the globe order the ‘VTV Trisha sari’ and we can see the trend sticking on for longer.
However, even STR’s clothes created quite the hype. Simple trousers with a crisp linen shirt, in mostly pastel shades caught on among men off all age groups. A more recent example of minimalist, pastel clothes would be Aravind Swamy’s look in Thani Oruvan. His blazers, suits and casual linen shirts made us fall in love with him all over again!
(Compiled by Arpitha Rao)
