NEW DELHI - Known for her ethnic Indian wear, the iconic Ritu Kumar has been around in the fashion industry for 40 years. Yet she has not designed for any mainstream Bollywood movie, the reason being she has neither the time nor the patience.

“The way things are in Bollywood, I don’t think I have the time and patience for all that,” Delhi-based Ritu Kumar told IANS in an interview.

“For a typical Hindi movie, you have to be on the sets all the time. There are last-minute changes or else the director or the actors are not happy with their costume and you have to change it then and there only. I don’t have time for all that,” she said.

In her 60s, Ritu Kumar has been associated with artisans from Bhuj in Gujarat for a long time and is known for her designs in India and abroad.

Even though she has designed for her son Ashvin Kumar’s film “Little Terrorist”, which was also nominated for the 2004 Academy Awards and her cousin Deepa Mehta’s “Bollywood Hollywood”, she says they were different types of films.

“For these movies, we did our homework and research and I didn’t have to be on the sets all the time. The concept was given to me and the characters were discussed in advance. So it was easy and convenient for me to design for them unlike for a regular Bollywood movie,” explained Ritu Kumar.

However, she doesn’t rule out the possibility of working in a period film.

“I would very much like to do a period film and that would require a lot of research to design for the characters of the movie. I don’t want to look like a fool after designing for it,” said Ritu Kumar.

“I have no problems in doing extensive research for the characters of the period film but devoting an entire day on the sets is out of question as I have to look after my label also,” she said.

(Shilpa Raina can be contacted at shilpa.r@ians.in)