Deepali Noor Wins National Award for Best Costume Design in Pushpa 2

Costume designer Deepali Noor has won the National Award for Best Costume Design for her work on Pushpa 2: The Rule at the 72nd National Film Awards. Noor, who worked alongside director Sukumar across nearly five years on the Pushpa franchise, was recognised for crafting the visual identity and attire for the film's ensemble cast.

Reflecting on the recognition, Noor stated that the award represents a collective effort by the director, producers, actors, and crew who worked behind the scenes. She has been associated with the project since its initial conceptualisation, focusing on developing costumes that reflected the lead character's gradual transformation from an ordinary man into a flashy yet character-rooted figure.

The costume creation involved extensive background research into the region's climate, culture, social setting, occupation, and available fabrics. To ensure the garments felt authentic and grounded in gritty environments, Noor avoided off-the-rack clothing. Her team executed detailed fabric dyeing, texturing, and ageing processes to make the clothes look naturally worn by the actors on set.

Designing for Pushpa 2 presented major logistical challenges due to the scale of the production. Noor was tasked with creating distinct identities for over 40 individual characters while overseeing thousands of costumes across the entire cast. Each costume required multiple duplicate versions to accommodate action sequences, shifting weather conditions, and visual continuity, all while maintaining a consistent color palette.

Working on set required flexibility as changes to locations, added scenes, or creative adjustments occurred dynamically during shooting. Noor highlighted that spontaneous design ideas often emerged during these moments. This project marked her third feature film collaboration with director Sukumar, involving regular creative discussions on color choices and visual details to enhance the director's vision.

Following her work on the Pushpa series, Noor is currently designing costumes for the upcoming film Dragon, directed by Prashanth Neel and starring Jr NTR, Anil Kapoor, and Ashutosh Rana.