Of crowns, jewels and attires

Manisha Kapoor is set to resuscitate the story of Hyderabad and all that it is in her curation ‘An Ode to Royalty’ which is scheduled to be presented on the 16 July at Sheraton Hotel from 6 pm.

To escalate the mood and ambience of the event, those invited have been asked to follow a dress code of ‘Black and Gold’ ethnic royalty.

We quench that thirst of curiosity by talking to the woman behind the show.

Excerpts from the interview.

What inspired you to choose the theme as royalty for your curation?
I hail from Kolkata and I’ve been in the family of the Kumars who are very well known there. We’ve been the hosts for the Pataudi family and also the royal king of England among others.

I got married into Hyderabad and it has been almost ten years now and I’ve always been keen on the royalty of the city .

I’ve been attracted to the Nizams, their jewellery their tehzeeb (culture) and their costumes and that’s what fascinated me into hosting this curation.

What went behind making of the event?
A lot of research went behind preparing for this event. I met two or three nawabs here and learnt about their descendants. I met Rounak who has been the Nawab of the seventh generation.

I’ve researched the kind of clothes they used to wear the sort of jewellery they adorned their tehzeeb. So I’ve met a lot of people while preparing this curation.

What exactly will the curation present?
The Nawabs never come up on the podium and people don’t even know about them so I’m celebrating royalty of Hyderabad through this curation. There will be five to six descendants of the fourth Nizam on stage that day.

I’m also introducing a Kerala fashion week designer, Sashi Vangapalli, who will be depicting how the people used to dress and the kind of jewellery that was adorned by people of that era.

There is also a surprise element for the audience which will only be revealed at the event. I want my audience to be anxious about what else could be there to this curation.