Mumbai, Oct 15 (PTI) A pall of gloom descended on
Kolhapur, around 350 km from Mumbai, after locals heard that
Bhanumati Annasaheb Rajopadhye, better known as Bhanu Athaiya,
born in the temple town in 1929, had died on Thursday.
The 91-year-old, the first Indian to win an Oscar, was
born into an orthodox Brahmin family and was interested in art
from childhood, a trait she picked up from her father, who was
the royal priest in the erstwhile princely state of Kolhapur,
said Subhash Wadangekar, a family friend.
"Her mother Shantabai encouraged Bhanumati's passion
for painting and after her primary education at Kolhapur, got
her enrolled in Mumbais prestigious J J School of Art,"
Wadangekar told PTI.
Bhanumati completed most of her school education in
the Private High School and the Maharani Laxmibai Girls High
School in the temple town in western Maharashtra, he said.
"When she won the Oscar in 1983, both the schools held
separate functions in Kolhapur and felicitated her," he said.
She won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design in
Richard Attenborough's Gandhi, with Ben Kingsley as the
Mahatma, along with John Mollo. The lavish biopic of Mahatma
Gandhi swept the Oscars with eight awards.
"It was a thrilling experience for us as she brought
the world-famous golden statuette with her and we could touch
it for a moment," Wadangekar said.
A grand felicitation function was held in Kolhapur by
the then civic body as well, Wadangekar added.
Bhanumati was eight years old when her father died but
her mother and elder sister Ranjan ran the house, he said,
adding after Ranjans marriage the Rajopadhye family shifted
to Belgaum.
A road in Kolhapur is named after her father Annasaheb
and is known as Rajopadhye street, said Anuradha Kadam, senior
journalist from Kolhapur.
"As a child, Bhanumati acted in Marathi movie Ekadashi
Mahatmya, mainly because some of the prominent directors and
actors such as V Shantaram, Bhalji Pendharkar and Baburao
Painter were from Kolhapur," Kadam said.
However, Bhanumati did not work in any other Marathi
movie later but got associated with films later as costume
designer after passing out from the J J School of Art, from
where she won the gold medal during the final year, she said.
While at the J J School of Art, Bhanumati's fashion
illustrations were published in a popular magazine, the family
friend said.
"Actor Nargis was impressed by her designs and that
was how Bhanumati got work as costume designer for Raj
Kapoor's hit 1955 Hindi film Shree 420," she said.
After graduating in fine arts, Bhanumati secured her
first job as a fashion illustrator in the popular magazine
Eves Weekly.
She later worked for some time in a boutique as a
dress designer. The boutique was a popular one, frequented by
top Bollywood actresses of the time and that is how Nargis
noticed her, she said.
Family friends bemoaned that though she received
cinema's most coveted award, the Padma awards conferred by the
Indian government eluded her.
In an illustrious career spanning over five decades,
Bhanu Athaiya designed costumes for over 100 films and worked
with reputed filmmakers both in India and abroad.
The costumes she designed were considered path-
breaking for their times. She also authored the book The Art
of Costume Design, published in 2010. PTI ND VT
VT VT