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Indian designers dress Oscar nominee
Best actress nominee Dame Judi Dench will flaunt Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla designed apparel at Sunday's Oscar awards.
India's fashion designers have tempered the failure of the Bollywood film industry to secure an Oscar nomination by dressing best actress nominee Dame Judi Dench for Sunday's awards.
Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla designed the hand-embroidered aquamarine sherwani, a long formal coat dress, for the British actress, the fourth time she will wear one of their creations on the Oscars red carpet.
Jani showed Dame Judi a sketch of their design during a chance meeting in Britain three weeks ago while she was taking a break from filming of the latest James Bond movie Casino Royale, said Mumbai-based Khosla.
"Last night she called me up and said she loved it," he said. "She will be wearing it, she's a lady of her word," he said.
"It makes us feel proud. No other Indian designers have had their clothes on the red carpet so often."
No money passed hands, he said, and the pair are likely to release a "watered down" version of the dress for retail.
Dame Judi secured her fifth Academy Award nomination for Mrs Henderson Presents. She also won best supporting actress in 1998 for Shakespeare in Love, when she was wearing one of the pair's creations.
But the giant Indian film industry has again been left disappointed at the 78th Academy Awards.
The industry, the world's largest producer by volume, had pinned its hopes on Amol Palekar's Paheli starring Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan in the best foreign film category but it failed to be nominated.
No Indian film has yet to win an Oscar, with the last nomination back in 2001 being Lagaan.
