"Fashion, at its core, is transient, and fashion shows are consumed by a few. Cinema is not bound by demographics or language. It's a great way to connect with a wider audience," says designer Nachiket Barve, who has quietly spent the last two years designing costumes for Aani Kashinath Ghanekar (AKG), a biopic on the first superstar of Marathi films and theatre.

"The greatest challenge was to take the fashion designer out of the narrative, and work towards creating costumes that were period appropriate. I had to keep in mind that Ghanekar was a huge post-Independence star. There was no rich, flamboyant ethos to make things easier for me," says Barve about the film that is directed by Abhijeet Deshpande and scheduled to release in November. Barve has created the look for the entire cast, including Subodh Bhave, Sonali Kulkarni and Sumeet Raghavan.