Tollywood’s style icon Ashwin Mawle, who has been the stylist for the stars of Telugu cinema, speaks over an exclusive telephonic interaction with The Pioneer sharing his journey transitioning from international model, being recognised by Allu Arjun and styling stars representing Telugu cinema on global platform.
Tejal Sinha
Gone are the days when we didn’t need the advice of a stylist for our big days. Today, celebrities have their own personal stylists, making them glam bam every time on stage.
Well, today we have with us one such stylist, Ashwin Mewale, onboard for our Tollywood segment. You name a celeb and he has worked with them. Ever since being noticed by Pushpa star Allu Arjun, he has very well won the title of being Tollywood’s BFF stylist.
Most recently, he has become the very first stylist from the South to style celebrities for their global awards, including styling Allu Arjun for the National Award and the Berlin Film Festival.
But would you believe, if we say, that becoming a stylist happened pretty accidentally in his journey? Initially, at the age of 16, he got an international modelling offer from Switzerland. The Hyderabadi-based stylist, via a telephonic call with The Pioneer, recalls, “It was a tough decision to make if I had to pursue my studies or to take up this coincidental offer that took me to Switzerland. I was anyways weak at studies; my parents and I had to push me to study, which I failed miserable at. It was a very young decision to make for something that had come to me very coincidentally. I never thought that I could be a model because I was all freckled, pimpled and long-haired, like that teen who was growing into adolescence. But if something was coming my way, I could see that I’d never been abroad by then, and so I thought, if nothing, I’d get a free trip abroad.”
“I had nothing in my mind; I didn’t know what a stylist was,” he humorously shares. “I did not know the spelling or anything like a stylist that exists. (we laugh). Like I told you, I was ambitionless. I took up my modelling career by fluke! The only thing in my head was that I’d get to see foreigners (he laughs out loud). I did not see the struggles or anything related to modelling too until I was trained. My agency just told me that you are photogenic and that you can do really well. That was like a learning experience there, but I had no idea what I wanted to do. In my life, many things have been coincidental and very impromptu.” Having never been to a fashion school, becoming a stylist too came up very extemporely. During his break time in his modelling work, he made sure to visit Hyderabad, or even twice a year. It was during this time that he and actor Allu Arjun became good friends, and it was him who spotted his hidden talent and asked him to style the actor for Arya 2. “He told me that I was not supposed to do anything much but just shop for him. He liked the way I used to dress and called me the ‘best dressed guy in the city’. I love the way you spare things up and style yourself. I want something like that for me in this movie,” he gleefully recalls. He, along with the star, travelled to Dubai for his shopping and it was he who also helped Ashwin out about how to pair certain things for a scene. During this, a buzz happened that Allu Arjun had hired a stylist, and the concept of a stylist was pretty new for South Indian cinema back then. He further recalls, “The buzz also claimed that the stylist was from abroad, though I was from Hyderabad. The curiosity of media and people was x100. When the pre-release stills from the film came out, everybody was like, this (Arya 2) has become the most-stylist film of South India back then.”
After that, he was poured in with a lot of offers. One of which was styling Kajal Aggarwal with 70 costumes in Darling. By the time he could realise, months had passed in Hyderabad and he had taken up many offers and signed a lot of films. He suddenly became the stylist of South Cinema. He realised this was his calling and passion, which were hidden.
“Kajal has been a sweetheart and she has been my first best friend in the industry,” shares the stylist, who has also styled Jr NTR for the Golden Globe Award and styled megastar Chiranjeevi for the Padmavibhushan Award, as we discuss him styling the Darling star for the film. “Though I was a beginner and I didn’t know what costume designing for a film was like, she’s always been there and taught me. She was the first actress I styled. Styling a male actor was very easy because it was like I was styling myself. However, on the other hand, styling an actress involves a lot of things. Kajal was so helpful and understanding and sometimes she’d simply let my mistakes just go away.”
The industry, he says, has taught him a lot throughout his career. While there was his initial calling by Allu Arjun, Jr NTR has always been a big supporter in the industry to teach him a lot of things. Then there’s director Sukumar, who, to him, was like his school teacher. It was the support he has received from the stars that, he says, has made his journey flow so smoothly. “Jr NTR and I go back almost eight years or even more. I have been styling him in all his films, appearances, projects and advertisements. When it came to the Oscars, it was a surreal moment for all of us. The only thing I knew, even before he told me, was that I had to make something special for him. We had to make sure to create something that made the world turn around and look at him. We sat down and I presented a few of them and he zeroed in like two or three and we locked in Gaurav Gupta to design. We came up with the concept of the most iconic scene in RRR, where Jr NTR roars like a tiger. We took that as inspiration and incorporated it into his black velvet sherwani. This was done in no time by Gaurav Gupta. All thanks to him and his team for creating it in 2 days. And that’s how his outfit was the most talked about on the red carpet at the Oscars.”
Styling for 100% Love with Naga Chaitanya and Tamannaah was one of his most challenging projects, with the transitions that Tamannaah’s character brings into the film. He further credits both actors for making it easier for him to work. Then the next challenging one was Temper, since the film demanded a new look for Jr. NTR. He also adds that Nannaku Prematho was more challenging than Temper because it had Jr. NTR in a look never seen before. “I took up that challenge to make this look because it was an entire game-changer look for NTR. The pre-planning was certainly challenging, but the outcome was worth it. He gave me the freedom to try out different looks.”
You go by his portfolio, and just like we mentioned, he has worked with many celebrities. Well, the cutie couple Varun Tej and Lavanya Tripathi, one could just not stop to adore their wedding pictures. And guess what? The couple was styled by none other than Ashwin! “When they called me and my partner, they were like, There’s something we wanted to share with you. We, of course, knew what was coming. It took us a couple of months to go to the locations, and we came up with colour palettes and the theme. I gave them a presentation and they just loved it. They just left it to us. It was just not both of them, but we had styled the entire guest list, right from Allu Arjun to the brothers and cousins of the couple. We did almost 90 wedding looks for all of them in just one month.”
Well, for him, it would be a dream come true to work with Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra and Varun Dhawan as well.
