When costume designer Stephy Zaviour advised mates that she was set to direct a movie she was warned that there could be frustration and quite a lot of tears. “There were no tears, if there was a problem I would just deal with it. What is the point of tears?” says the award-winning costume designer who makes her directorial debut with Madhura Manohara Moham.
Starring Bindu Panicker, Rajisha Vijayan, Saiju Kurup, Sharafudheen, and Vijayaraghavan amongst others, Madhura Manohara Moham is a ‘family, comedy drama’. “It is peopled by characters that we may or may not know. I am not claiming that this is a ‘different’ film, but there are parts in it that might resonate with some of us.” It is the story of a mom, Bindu Panicker, and her three kids essayed by Sharafudheen, Rajisha Vijayan and Arsha Chandini Baiju.
What she doesn’t say is that it might take extra to make her cry.
Stephy selected style design with an eye fixed on the movie trade, decided to make a profession as a costume designer. She made her debut designing costumes for Lukka Chuppi and Lord Livingston 7000 Kandi in 2015. Guppy landed her first State Award in 2018.
Getting to the place she is true now, making the journey, actually and metaphorically, from Wayanad to establishing herself in the Malayalam movie trade with out connections, designing for movies equivalent to Aadujeevitham, Angamaly Diaries, Ishq, Joseph, Guppy, and Jana Gana Mana amongst others was no cakewalk.
Bindu Panicker, Rajisha Vijayan, Sharafudeen and Arsha Chandini Baiju in a nonetheless from the movie
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
She was ‘advised’ to ‘stick’ to doing what she knew finest and ‘warned’ that the transfer would jeopardise her costume designer profession. “The privilege extended to a cinematographer or an editor when they turn director is denied to an art director, a make-up artist or a costume designer. We may all be in the spectrum of ‘creative’, but some of us are not enough. I have learnt from experience that it is very difficult to prove that you can be creative as a director,” she says.
She was additionally cautioned that she may lose work as a costume designer. “I had no such fears, in fact, I had to turn down a couple of films because Madhura… was in post-production. That said, I don’t take this chance (to direct a film) lightly.” The eight years spent in the trade have been a interval of studying, some classes in what to do and others in how to not be.
Ezra (2017) a supernatural horror movie directed by Jayakrishnan, for which she was costume designer, is the movie that bought her inquisitive about making a movie. “I don’t watch horror films, and being on the set of one I was curious about how the subject would be treated. I would bombard Sujith Vaassudev, the DoP, and producer CV Sarathi, of E4 Entertainment, with questions. Amused by my love of storytelling and curiosity, Sarathi sir told me to direct films. That way I could tell as many stories as I wanted.”
To have that concept, which she had not advised her closest mates, articulated was a turning level. It could be one other two years until she advised her mates about it.
By then, as the concept marinated in her thoughts, she discovered the confidence and the conviction to make the dream a actuality.
Stephy Zaviour
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THULASI KAKKAT
The first individual she narrated a narrative she wished to make a movie on was actor and pal Rajisha Vijayan in 2018. Just as the whole lot fell into place the pandemic struck. It could be one other two years when she would lastly decide to a mission as director. “Two of my friends, Mahesh Gopal and Jai Vishnu approached me with a script to read. They knew I was looking to direct a film, but this was not for that. When they asked who could be the lead, I suggested Rajisha. Unexpectedly I came on board as director… long story short, here we are!” she says. After a few false begins, the movie lastly began rolling in September 2022.
Contrary to the notion that her years in the trade would have made issues straightforward for her, getting dates was not straightforward. “They see me as a costume designer; one of the first questions asked was ‘Has she worked as an AD (assistant director)? How good is she technically? How aware is she?’ Access, yes. But beyond that, it is not easy. That said, all the artists who are part of the project are here because they trust me.”
The Aadujeevitham expertise
Aadujeevitham is a particular movie. I’ve been engaged on the movie for six of the eight years that I’ve been a part of the trade. I don’t suppose one other movie like it will occur once more in my profession as a costume designer. I’ve usually questioned about Blessy sir selecting me. I barely had a few years of expertise again then. Aadujeevitham is a once-in-a-lifetime expertise. Prithviraj was such knowledgeable, he could be wearing the threadbare costumes of the movie in the biting chilly of the desert. Some actors are likely to get cranky, he was a radical skilled about it. Numerous analysis went into the costumes, for example, how fixed publicity to the solar impacts cloth or how blood on a material ages. The entire course of has been fascinating.
She rigorously picked technicians and actors and meticulously deliberate the movie, unwilling to depart something to likelihood. The costume designer kicked in, “We can’t go on set and improvise… same rules as a director for me.” However, typically even the best-laid plans don’t pan out.
“Since filming was delayed, the original DoP had to move to his next project. That is how Chandru Selvaraj came on board, I was meeting him for the first time. He does not speak Malayalam and my Tamil is below par. I was worried about how we would communicate…but it was one of the best things to happen!” says Stephy.
One of the issues Chandru advised her was to not become involved with the movie’s costumes as a result of that might distract her from the job at hand, and she or he calls it the finest recommendation she may have gotten. It was not straightforward, she confesses, however she labored exhausting to not become involved. Though the costume designer is one in all her former assistants, Sanooj, she caught to her job as director.
Although a horror movie impressed her, she says she prefers to be ‘genre-free’. “Women are expected to make templated films — ‘inspirational’ stories of empowerment — but I want to tell other kinds of stories too. If given a chance, I want to make an action film or even a horror flick. I don’t want to make a movie to ‘change the world’ because I have a producer’s money. Cinema should also entertain. And if I feel so strongly about something, there is always my social media.”
She says inspiration has come from everybody she has labored with regardless of their gender. The issues she confronted alongside the approach whereas making the movie, had nothing to do with her gender. “I have only faced the same problems that my male filmmaker peers have.”
