Working in OTTs and web series are good platforms for young talent and young technicians. But in terms of work, sometimes I look at projects like Hindi, French, Korean. We are busy so we can’t avoid being updated,” said costume designer Joshyula Gayatri Devi. Recently, she worked for the detective vet series ‘Vikatakavi’ which is streaming on popular OTT channel G5. Naresh Agastya and Megha Akash in the lead roles and directed by Pradeep Maddali is produced by passionate producer Ram Talluri Vikatakavi web series under the banner of leading production company SRT Entertainments. This web series is being streamed by leading OTT company ZEE5 from November 28. Interview with costume designer Joshyula Gayatri Devi about her working experience in this periodical detective web series….
- Background.. I was born in Vijayanagara and grew up in Chennai. I studied in Chennai till Inter. I completed engineering in computer science. I worked in Samsung. Later I joined Microsoft. At that time I came to Hyderabad. I worked as a developer in India Development Center. After working in Hyderabad for three years, I resigned from the job due to some personal reasons.
- How did you become a fashion designer?
- I thought to take a break after resigning from the job. I joined fashion designing at that time. Even though she taught sewing and knitting at home, she felt that doing fashion designing would be a good way to start a business. After forty-five years, I thought that the boutique business would give up. But.. I resigned from my job anyway.. Now I have decided to start a boutique business. So I did a year-long fashion designing diploma course at Hamsteg. I also did a fashion show during the course. The year after that I was also called as a mentor… I did that too. No matter how much passion we have for designing course, to make a garment we have to have execution. I need to know from buying the fabric to how much I will sell the finished work. So I worked as a fashion show mentor. I had 7 teams. Later I started my own boutique business. By 2019, the boutique business was working well. But after covid came I closed the business. Now I am planning to do business on a bigger scale.
- How did you enter the film industry?
- Other designers used to come and stitch with me regularly. With this journey, I also slowly entered the film industry. I did only designing for the Palasa movie…didn’t go to the shoot. However, my career as a costume designer started here through the web series Kudi Edadem made by Aha. Later I worked for another movie called Parahushar. But due to some reasons the movie was not released. Later I worked for the movie Kalapuram produced by Karunakumar. Later I worked on costume designing for Sarvam Shaktimayam series directed by Pradeep Maddaligaru. This web series has given me a lot of experience. Because I learned how to handle a full outdoor project with less budget.. less man power.
- Tell us about your working experience for the periodical series Vikatkavi?
- Working for Sarvam Shakti Mayam series helped me a lot to work for Vikatkavi series. Actually, after the Sarvam Shaktimayam series, I worked for the series Harikatha produced by the People Media banner. It is also a periodical series of 90’s story and story. It will hit the screens in December. Maggi of Three Roses fame has directed this series. Along with this, the opportunity to work for Vikatkavi series came at the same time. Harikatha started first in the periodical series. It is also a bit odd that when one series is shooting, another series is not shooting. It should also be said that the work done by Harikatha has helped in the matter of Vikatakavi. It is not regularly possible to work on such different concept series. Offer it when the opportunity arises.
- What is the difference between working for movies and series?
- A series has limitations on working time and budget. Expect high output on low budget. But when it comes to movies, there is some flexibility in terms of budget. While working on a series there are many inputs from the director as well as the OTTs. But in movies, the director is the final decision maker.
- How to update as a technician?
- Technicians should be updated from time to time. I haven’t worked for web series after doing films. Career started by working for serials. Working in OTTs and web series are good platforms for young talent and young technicians. But in terms of work, sometimes I look at projects like Hindi, French, Korean. Can’t stop updating as we are busy.
- Tell us about the working experience of ‘Vikatakavi’ series?
- Vikatkavi series was shot in Telangana back drop. Since it is also a periodical story, I did a lot of research. Before I wanted to know what Hyderabad was like in 1940, my associates told me to watch a Telangana movie called ‘Mabhoomi’. Through that movie, how was the Hyderabad of those days.. I got to know about the dress, culture and traditions of the people of that time. I went to the library and read articles on how Hyderabad was then. I thought about how I should show it under the story.. how to take liberty. I have prepared a small team for that. Long story short, I have downloaded videos on how to wear pants and shirts. We did look tests. It gave a different experience as technicians.
- What did you find challenging in ‘Vikatakavi’?
- A lot of care should be taken in the matter of fabrics.. What we thought before is different. But according to the mood of the story, the fabrics had to be changed. We have taken some precautions regarding the look of the hero. We had to look tall while looking in that look.. All these seemed challenging to us. But we have come to correct all of them by taking proper precautions and doing research. We thought chudidar before Megha Akashgari. But according to the story, Shareen seems to like it better than Chudidar. As such silk sarees were not used. We used cotton, linen and khadi sarees.
- Next projects?
- Currently I am working for Hot Star’s web series Marmayogi directed by Satish Vegesnagaru. Shooting has started recently. I am also working on a movie called Manasachora.