Thread: Ideas for affordable Bollywood Costumes --

Hi there! We have Bollywood/Arabic fusion routine we want to revive and that includes doing something different (better) with the costuming. We admittedly didn't look very Bollywood in our velvet tie-dye stretch bellbottom pants and cholis!! Colorful yes, but needing to step it up.

While I know we can't afford true Bollywood costumes in all their glory, just for FUN, does anyone have a resource or link they can share just to window shop?

I'm looking for a creative way to get a look similar to the costumes worn by the girls on So You THink you Can Dance --in their recent Bollywood routine.

ANy resource or creative idea is VERY appreciated. THank you!

I am having a Indian/ME/American wedding and members suggested EBAY. They have tons for less. Unless you can find an Indian store in your area, that is your best bet.

Costuming for Bollywood songs depends on the song and style you do.
This could be a Bollywood costume:

..g.:
Or this


I always wonder why people think that ALL Bollywood costuming must look like this?


Watch more films!
In earlier times dance numbers (so called "items") mostly showed a girl in a rather racy costume while the heroine remained the "good girl" in traditional clothes and didn't really dance.

Nowadays mini skirts and short shorts are all over the place.

The perception of what is "typical Bollywood" seems to be very different in the West and in India!

So depending on the music you are dancing to, bell bottom pants might actually be the right choice! One thing to make sure is that you use colorful, shiny materials.

This is my Arabic-Indian fusion costume that I made myself - it's basically a bellydance costume with some Indian flavour (the fabric). I used it for an Egyptian-Indian fusion piece (no Bollywood influence).



And this is what I wore with my dance partner



Basically an Indian skirt and choli combined with a fringed belt.

Here's my Bollywood gallery to give you more ideas about what can be worn for Bollywood dance - always depending on if the stlye of song you do is classical, modern, folkloric etc.
MEISSOUN - Bollywood Dance gallery

MEISSOUN

I love your gallery MEISSOUN.

This is definitely for a wedding or party.

I have a few left in this thread, if you are interested - the black and red are really nice (& very easy to wear), also sparkly, good for fusion pieces:
http://www.bhuz.com/forum/bellydance...l-reduced.html

I am selling a hot pink long shirt with metallic embrodery and pearls. With free sari!
http://www.bhuz.com/forum/bellydance...free-sari.html

Thank you Meissoun! Points well taken!

I absolutely adore the costumes in the 2photos from Dec 07 in your gallery.

We're dusting off "Nari Narien" -- do you think costumes similar to those in the above referenced photos would be appropriate? I remember the music video having a lot of everything!

DId you make those costumes--they were beautiful. If you purchased them, are you willing to share your source?? ;)

What would they NOT be appropriate for? ALSO -- how/where do I get your Bollywood video? :) thank you for helping me!

Nari Narin is not a Bollywood song - it's an Arabic pop song with some Indian influences to make it more exotic and to shoot a "different" music video ..g.:

So the way to go would be a modern bellydance costume with some Indian flavour. Colorful and shiny will definitely be the way to go. Pants might work as well.

I bought the skirt and choli for the duet number from a source in Germany. Would have to look for the address. E-mail me if you are interested.

You can get my instructional videos from my website:
Bollywood Dance Instructional DVDs

MEISSOUN

Oh absolutely....I may not know much about the Indian film industry or it's many genres of dance, but I do know Nari Narien isn't a "Bollywood" song! ..l;,and I'm sure I've never referred to it as such to anyone...g.: We do consider our routine to be Bollywood/Arabic pop fusion (and we incorporated several moves we learned from David a couple years ago in Nashville on top of what I had learned from classes with Samantha Briggs, and the Meena DVDs.)

I'm definitely adding your video to my library, and I'll email you also! Thank you so much for your help!

Ah OK - it's always hard to tell if somebody has some knowledge or is totally clueless so I prefer to make sure that everybody gets the facts right ;-)

MEISSOUN

there are some troupe costume pics at Nalini & Blue Lotus Dance Company . we just had our "dola re" saris turned into calf length skirts that we wear with knickers and cholis and dupattas. I haven't been on the page recently to see if our golf tournament pics are up, but we wore the knickers with tribal-ish diagonal overskirts and ponytail falls instead of buns and dupattas for a less "expected" (I don't want to say traditional!) look. we called them our pirate costumes and they were hella fun.

the blue lotus trio had some more elaborate costumes, several of which are for sale at Bollywood and Belly dance artist - Nalini (nalini also has a ton of stunning costume photos).

Check your local Indian import stores.
Also, I'm really happy with the stuff I got from India Bazaar, and they have wholesale prices so do ask about that India Bazaar

Originally Posted by elisagamal

there are some troupe costume pics at Nalini & Blue Lotus Dance Company . we just had our "dola re" saris turned into calf length skirts that we wear with knickers and cholis and dupattas. I haven't been on the page recently to see if our golf tournament pics are up, but we wore the knickers with tribal-ish diagonal overskirts and ponytail falls instead of buns and dupattas for a less "expected" (I don't want to say traditional!) look. we called them our pirate costumes and they were hella fun.

the blue lotus trio had some more elaborate costumes, several of which are for sale at Bollywood and Belly dance artist - Nalini (nalini also has a ton of stunning costume photos).

Beautiful Bollywood costuming! And LOVED the golf pics -- especially the ones with golf clubs on your heads!!

Originally Posted by nitewindz

Check your local Indian import stores.
Also, I'm really happy with the stuff I got from India Bazaar, and they have wholesale prices so do ask about that India Bazaar

Thank you for the link. Did you get complete head to toe dance costumes from India Bazaar? I visited the site and saw bellydance costumes, but no skirt, choli, dupata sets that had the look I was going for. I didn't click on everything, so maybe I missed it?

email to me on marilynajju@hotmail.com i can make all kind of costumes u want..... i have costume section which include choli, dupatta and skirt set.. but if u want any special u can email to me
India bazaar
ajay

Originally Posted by bdaddiction

I love your gallery MEISSOUN.

This is definitely for a wedding or party.

Oh my gosh! If I ever get married again, I want to wear this!!!

Originally Posted by bellabelly

Hi there! We have Bollywood/Arabic fusion routine we want to revive and that includes doing something different (better) with the costuming. We admittedly didn't look very Bollywood in our velvet tie-dye stretch bellbottom pants and cholis!! Colorful yes, but needing to step it up.

While I know we can't afford true Bollywood costumes in all their glory, just for FUN, does anyone have a resource or link they can share just to window shop?

I'm looking for a creative way to get a look similar to the costumes worn by the girls on So You THink you Can Dance --in their recent Bollywood routine.

ANy resource or creative idea is VERY appreciated. THank you!

Did you try looking up on halloween costume stores..they might have some great selection!

Wow! Zombie thread!

But to add to this, Jillina's Salala Dancers wear this:

NEW INDIAN BOHO Lehnga BELLY DANCE LEHENGA CHOLI DRESS - eBay (item 250531630046 end time Dec-16-09 15:30:19 PST)

for their Indian Fusion piece.

{{HUGS}}}

Nice! Good luck with the costume hunt. Meissoun, it is actually my pet peeve that Nakul, the choreographer on SYTYCD always dresses his dancers like Madhur Dixit in Devdas I'd love to see more contemporary Bollywood fashion.

I did a Bollywood-ish bellydance number to Yeh Mera Dil once, inspired by that picture of Helen you posted from Don:
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