Hollywood's new clothes

Delhi's Rangarsons is dressing up stars and sets of four major period films

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These are some of the eagerly-awaited Hollywood blockbusters slated for release between May 2004 and end of 2005. But when you go for these flicks, note the studio props and costumes that the stars sport.

For instance, don't miss the 400-metre long, richly embroidered burgundy, velvet screen used on the stage in The Phantom of the Opera. Or the cufflinks and buttons in the ceremonial dresses of the 5,000 extras in Kingdom of Heaven, currently being shot in Morocco.

For, most of these props and embroidered fabric and accessories are being sourced from your own backyard: from Rangarsons, a small company located in the heart of Connaught Place in Delhi.

So when you watch Troy, carefully note the Grecian designs on Brad Pitt's robes. For the film, Rangarsons has also provided the 30,000 metres of fabric that's been used on the pillars, poster beds and sofas. With a factory in East Delhi, where its 100-people strong staff expertly embroiders intricate zari patterns, sequin and beadwork on fabrics of all textures, such demands from Hollywood are easily met.

But promoters of the company, Paramjit Singh Rana and son Manjot, admit that sometimes they do land up with quirky projects: for the Jackie Chan-starrer Around the World in Eighty Days, being shot in Thailand, the company sourced £ 57,000 worth of halwai pans, Tibetan boxes, antique statues, doors and jalis, to recreate a five-minute scene of a street in Agra. "All of the 200 diverse items ordered were delivered within two months. It wasn't easy but we're used to working under pressure," says Manjot Rana.

Thanks to the recent spate of contracts, business at Rangarsons has grown by 70 per cent admits Rana. "Usually, we used to get two film projects a year," he adds.

Paramjit Rana says that the reason why Rangarsons is increasingly getting business is because it is cheaper to source embroidery work, costumes and set props from the subcontinent. In fact, Rangarsons also reaches the UK market through the country's local prop design and costume companies.

Recently, it supplied 2,000 flip-flops and 5,000 spear-point shirts to the UK-based costumes company Angels and also provided furniture items to Farley's, a highend prop design company that organises theme parties for singer Elton John.

Predictably, like most entrepreneurs, the Ranas are not willing to share their company's income. But they admit that they make roughly Rs 2-3 crore from the company's traditional business of brass bands. "Earlier we use to manufacture brass bands for the army, now we represent the marching band equipment maker Conn Selmar in India," says Manjot.

However, the promoters add that their bread and butter comes from their core business: ceremonial dresses for the Indian Armed Forces. It makes military uniforms, head gears, cummerbunds, chevrons, epaulettes and other ceremonial gears for the 45 army regiments in the country.

Now the company is spreading wings and has bagged contracts from the Royal Oman Police, the Saudi Arabian military guards and the Zimbabwe and Tanzanian armies.

Rangarsons has also dressed up the Queen of England's Own Guards and the President of India's bodyguards. "Ours is a word-of-mouth business and we've been getting inquiries from Nepal and Bangladesh," says Rana.

As far as films go Rangarsons, which moved from Rawalpindi to Delhi after Partition, got its first project when Oscar-winning designer Bhanu Athaiya breezed into its Delhi office in 1982. She placed orders for the film Gandhi: the general's dress, tailback coats et al. The rest, as they say is history.

"We usually get full-size drawings from the set designers of the film who visit us once. Later, we interact with their coordinators. We have to meet very strict delivery dates," adds Manjot, who has, recently, dispatched embroidered fabrics for Alexander, to be released in November. For The Kingdom of Heaven, a historical saga set in the 12th century, the company has dispatched 400 flags, embroidered differently.

Other than Gandhi and The Gladiator, the Ranas have also worked for Hindi films like Lagaan and the yet-to-be-released The Rising.