Vidya Balan and Rani Mukerjee had to shoot in old Delhi’s crowded areas for No One Killed Jessica. But how could that possibly happen without a mob surrounding them when Rani and Vidya are both such popular names? Director of the film, Rajkumar Gupta, who earlier made the Rajeev Khandelwal starrer Aamir, wanted to shoot the film on real lanes with hidden cameras. He wanted to shoot Vidya and Rani as part of the crowd to give an authentic feel to the film.

He did the same thing with Rajeev while shooting for Aamir in Mumbai. The candid shots with hidden cameras give a better look to the scene. He hadn’t realized the security risk he was undertaking when he asked Rani and Vidya to do it the same way.

He wanted to shoot in jam-packed lanes where vans wouldn’t be able to reach and not usual areas like Chandni Chowk. But he was suddenly very unsure of his plan when they reached the location in a van. He reveals that he was only able to do the shoot only because they assured him. The two actresses got into the crowd and shot for a while until people began to recognize them. Before the problem got out of hand, they would rush into the van and then leave for another place in old Delhi.

He came along like a magician and transformed Bollywood’s two classic actresses’ wardrobe from boring to being bold and beautiful! The two said actresses are Rani Mukerjee and Vidya Balan and their magician is ace fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee.

Initially trashed for their jaded fashion sense, Rani and Vidya now get featured as the most stylish Indian actresses across the media. We thus decided to ask Sabya who amongst the two is better when we bumped into him on day one of Lakme Fashion Week’10 in Mumbai. Sabya has also designed clothes for both Rani and Vidya in their forthcoming film together ‘No one killed Jessica’.

“I’ll always choose Rani over Viyda. Rani gave me a chance in Black when I was a no one and I am quite loyal that ways. I even won a National award for the same! Rani and I are Bengalis, love fish curry and bond over bitching about people in Bengali”, said Sabya with a smile.

Adding about Vidya he said, “Vidya is a beautiful Indian woman. I made her realize she should wear what suits her personality instead of following trends. We both love books and films so we are good friends too but Rani will always be a priority.”

So does that mean we will see Rani in Sabya’s forthcoming film as a director? “Nothing has been decided as yet. I am in my scripting stage. I am very moody. You may not see any known face in my film too” said the designer who calls a spade a spade.

Talking about his collection at the Lakme fashion week which got tremendous response, Sabya said, “It was something I should have showcased 4 years ago. Underwear showing is not Sabya but I did it because I don’t play to the gallery anymore. I don’t care what my critics say. I wanted to do what I never did before – Bohemian – Retro mix n match collection. I was getting jaded and I felt like rediscovering myself. I get a lot of inspiration from the French/ Italian films. The music of my show proved that as they played the theme of Cinema Paradiso, Frida, Evita, Godfather while the models sashayed down the ramp.”

We just loved the collection and the feisty man behind it.