Styling the stars: I had to struggle a lot, says Nisar Rahmath

Nisar Rahmath has to be somewhere at 12 pm. He is meeting director Biju Arookutty to discuss a new film with Dileep in the lead. The offer had come soon after he won the state award for best costume designer for Jo and the Boy. Along with this, he will also be working with director Jibu Jacob for a Mohanlal movie. But that's the one that first came to him, before he got any recognition, before he even became independent.

“Jibu Jacob had known me only for four days when he made the offer. It was in the sets of his film Ben when I was assisting my mentor Kumar Edappal in costume design. That’s the kind of trust he had in me,” says Nisar, who has just finished work for his second independent project — Avarude Raavukal.

“There are four heroes in the film and different getups for each of them. Asif Ali has three different getups — one a 1980s style, because he is from a village where things had not moved forward, another one comes when he moves to Kochi as an aspiring actor, and the third for his actor days. Unni Mukundan has an executive look and also a hippie look with long hair and beard, wearing harem pants. Vinay Forrt and Aju Varghese have mostly casual looks,” says Nisar.

Unni Mukundan in Avarude Ravukal.

Shanil Muhammed, the director of the film, had told Nisar he would call him when he made his next film after Philips and the Monkey Pen, which he co-directed with Rojin Thomas.

Rojin too kept his promise with Jo and the Boy, which was also Nisar’s first independent project. “It was all western wears with coats and jackets and dull colours, based on English movie patterns. The challenging part was designing costume for the animated character of the boy.” But Nisar had not quite expected an award for his first work. There were also big movies like Charlie and Ennu Ninte Moideen in the fray. “I would have been equally happy if Ennu Ninte Moideen won the award because I had assisted my mentor Kumar Edappal in it.” He thanks his mentor a lot during the conversation, for teaching him the many tricks of the trade.

Nisar has also worked with other award-winning costume designers like S.P. Satheesh. “I have been in the industry for six to seven years now. I had come from a very poor background from Mannarkkad and had to struggle a lot to reach here.” His first step was to begin a fashion store in Kochi after learning fashion designing. From there, he contacted costume designer Cuckoo Jevan and slowly made his way up. Now, at last, his time has come.