Nadigaiyar Thilagam: The 70 jewels that conjured magic to give ‘Mahanati’ Savitri’s vintage look on screen

Every movie made usually reminisce for their characters, and their timeless narratives. But what viewers often don’t ponder is the incredible amount of time that’s spent selecting the costumes and the accessories for even the most talented actors in the movie where all of the seemingly minor details add strength to the character and his or her act in the movie.

When the teaser of the most eagerly awaited film Nadigaiyar Thilagam / Mahanati, a biopic of legendary actress Savitri was released recently, Keerthy Suresh’s stately ornaments in Gold, Kundan, and Diamonds look in the film has left everyone in admiration about the choices the legendary actress Savitri had made during her lifetime.

While creating the perfect look with jewelry for the film Nadigaiyar Thilagam / Mahanati, the jewelry designer for the film Naveen Sangli and his team from L Bajrang Pershad Jewellers from Hyderabad began by watching her movie and the jewelry she wore in the yesteryears, including the study of the actress’s pictures and got the jewelry sketched.

“A team of five hand artisans was put meticulous work to reinvent the classics. Gold, Kundan, and Diamonds, jewelry was recreated in same old designs and finished with the antique look. Close to 15 karigars worked to customize and recreate these pieces exclusively for 8 months after almost 6 months of study and research and probing into the actress’s life story,” Naveen of Bejarang Pershad said.

“Even some of the antique jewelry was customized to meet the expectations director Nag Ashwin vision for Keerthy Suresh who played the titular role of Savitri. These included Necklaces, champaswaralu, earrings, jhumkas, bangles, watches, finger rings, paapidi billa, and vaddanams,” Producer Priyanka Dutt of Swapna Cinema said.

Savitri’s choice of jewels was always an extension of her personality, which is subtle yet beautifully chosen by her for every occasion. It is predominantly glamorous. “You wear it and it captivates you,” says the Director of the film Nag Ashwin, about the jewels that Savitri loved, adding that it took many laborious days for our jewellery designer to delve into her past, talk to her family, and know about her sensibilities for jewels before sitting down with our craftsman to make it.

To get the desired, bespoke jewelry pieces, handmade wire wrapping, dainty stone set wire ring technique was adopted. The ornaments design were sketched with their outlines and then each of the pieces was recreated by a team of highly experienced Karigars.

“We used a lot of old methods like gold wire wrapping and dainty stone setting methods to get the closest vintage look possible. Matching a few pieces with the sarees designed by designer Gaurang Shah was another major challenge. All his sarees were such antique weaves and vintage dyes, that giving matching jewelry to these was quite a task. Each studded piece has been a piece of art, blending with the era, the actress, the costumes and the imagination of the director.”  Naveen of Bajrang Pershad stated.

‘Every piece of jewelry we recreated is a tribute to the screen goddess Savitri’ the makers of the film Priyanka Dutt of Swapna Cinema and Director Nag Ashwin say. The iconic pieces are true film museum treasures. Creating addigas for Devadas look and coordinating them with the costumes was another feather in the hat. When you watch the movie, the replicas are merely going to leave you with all your jaws dropped.

Nadigaiyar Thilagam / Mahanati which has a congregation of celebrated stars like Keerthy Suresh, Dulquer Salmaan, Samantha Akkineni, Vijay Devarakonda and many others from the India film industry is presented by Vyjayanti Movies and produced by Priyanka Dutt of Swapna Cinema the biopic is slated for worldwide release on May 9, 2018.