Award-winning Malayalam costume designer Stephy Zaviour turns director with the movie ‘Madhura Manohara Moham’

Costume designer for films Stephy Zaviour recounts her experience of directing her first film Madhura Manohara Moham

When costume designer Stephy Zaviour told friends that she was set to direct a film she was warned that there would be frustration and a lot of tears. “There were no tears, if there was a problem I would just deal with it. What is the point of tears?” says the award-winning costume designer who makes her directorial debut with Madhura Manohara Moham.

Starring Bindu Panicker, Rajisha Vijayan, Saiju Kurup, Sharafudheen, and Vijayaraghavan among others, Madhura Manohara Moham is a ‘family, comedy drama’. “It is peopled by characters that we may or may not know. I am not claiming that this is a ‘different’ film, but there are parts in it that might resonate with some of us.” It is the story of a mother, Bindu Panicker, and her three children essayed by Sharafudheen, Rajisha Vijayan and Arsha Chandini Baiju.

What she does not say is that it would take more to make her cry.

Stephy chose fashion design with an eye on the film industry, determined to make a career as a costume designer. She made her debut designing costumes for Lukka Chuppi and Lord Livingston 7000 Kandi in 2015. Guppy landed her first State Award in 2018.

Getting to where she is right now, making the journey, literally and metaphorically, from Wayanad to establishing herself in the Malayalam film industry without connections, designing for films such as Aadujeevitham, Angamaly Diaries, Ishq, Joseph, Guppy, and Jana Gana Mana among others was no cakewalk.

She was ‘advised’ to ‘stick’ to doing what she knew best and ‘warned’ that the move would jeopardise her costume designer career. “The privilege extended to a cinematographer or an editor when they turn director is denied to an art director, a make-up artist or a costume designer. We may all be in the spectrum of ‘creative’, but some of us are not enough. I have learnt from experience that it is very difficult to prove that you can be creative as a director,” she says.

She was also cautioned that she could lose work as a costume designer. “I had no such fears, in fact, I had to turn down a couple of films because Madhura... was in post-production. That said, I don’t take this chance (to direct a film) lightly.” The eight years spent in the industry have been a period of learning, some lessons in what to do and others in how not to be.