The 68th National Film Awards winners list was announced on July 22 and among prominent names from Indian cinema, Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior was awarded the Best Costume Design and actor Ajay Devgn bagged the Best Actor award.
Amidst congratulatory messages and calls, costume designer Nachiket Barve is full of gratitude for winning the coveted award. Nachiket designed costumes for the main characters played by actors Ajay Devgn (Tanhaji Malusare), Kajol (Savitribai Malusare), Sharad Kelkar (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj), Saif Ali Khan (Udaybhan Singh Rathod), and Luke Kenny (Emperor Aurangzeb) among others.
You notice the love he has for his craft, in his voice when he speaks about the research that went into bringing his vision to life. Winning a National Award for his first Hindi film, Nachiket is all praise for the film’s director Om Raut, his team and the cast who made his vision come to life. “I feel with Tanhanji one has achieved a visual language which is kind of global in terms of how films are looked at today. Credit to the whole team, and of course Om Raut for getting me on board.”
He further adds, “This was my first Hindi film as a costume designer. I was introduced to the cast while we were doing the film. Whether it was Om or the lead cast of the film, they gave me the freedom to follow my vision. They were so appreciative of it even at the time of the film’s release.”
Nachiket reminisces how it took him and his team of 150 people two years of thorough research to create costumes, armour, and jewellery for the cast. According to Nachiket, Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior was a complex film to do, and he wanted to do it with authenticity. “In my small humble way and with the support of my team I wanted to bring authenticity and realism to the film. In the two years of research, we traced down jewellers and recreated jewellery from 400-year-old moulds, and also vegetable dyes were used, which was relevant at that point in time,” says Nachiket.
Nachiket, who is a prominent name in the world of fashion and costume design, is happy to see Indian cinema taking the lead globally as well. “I work for both worlds. Fashion is what I have been doing and I have been known for. I like to approach things with a certain integrity of craft, a certain honesty where I am pushing the bar forward. It is the same with costume, today we are at the cusp of where everybody is looking at India as one of the big leading film producing countries in the world. And if in a small way I can hope to redefine how costumes look and how that world is created, and if that world gets appreciated then it is a very humbling and gratifying step on the whole,” expresses Nachiket.
