Interwiew with Mr. Prasad Bidapa

On a lovely Monday evening, 13th of July at 6pm, we had Mr. Prasad Bidapa, Celebrity Fashion Stylist and Choreographer,  join Mr. Arvind, CEO of team.i on our Instagram live series  Expert Speak on the changing landscape…a plethora of opportunities.

Tell us about yourself:

 Mr. Prasad’s childhood has gone on travelling to various places. “I come from the air force background; my dad was in the air force. Thus I had to move around a lot. They never put me in boarding school until I was in high school”. He moves to Bangalore for his high school, and then joins St. Josephs for his undergrads

Thus he decided to venture into the line of fashion. He collaborated with Mr. Dinesh Hinduja to open a fashion warehouse, which back then was a huge hit. “We went from 1 store in Bangalore to 62 stores across the country”. 

Having done a bit of events himself back in his college days, Mr. Prasad would involve himself related to any events of their fashion warehouse which they went about quite aggressively. This aggression was spotted by the Govt, and he got an offer from the Karnataka Govt. to promote Karnataka silks in Delhi’s trade fair. Since then he started doing fashion shows and events across the country. 

 “Then I decided to leave the advertising agency, to focus on the fashion industry”. His departure from the ad agency was because he felt the ad agency was trying to sell lies to the general consumers, something he did not like being part of. 

 He then did his first fashion week show, and he became a pioneer of a new way of conducting this event. “I wanted it to be a public event and not a closed 5 star hotel event. I wanted the design students to get exposure, and thus had reserved a special place for them in the fashion week. This was the first fashion show to be done out in public”.

 After this, he collaborated with Business tycoon Vijay Mallya and started the first of many Kingfisher Fashion Award show, where celebrities such as Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone, Arjun Rampal and Anushka Sharma have been the winners. They have done this award show across various cities every year. 

 Since then, Mr. Prasad has become a celebrated name in this industry, and has placed Bangalore and Inida on the world map for fashion.

 Who can be a model?

“Switch on your tv and you can see a wide variety of models. Anyone can be a model. Be it thin, fat, dark, fair, old age, young age middle age. Any one absolutely can be a model. Groom yourself well. Keep yourself fit and healthy. Exercise regularly and well. This is how you will look good and best. Believe and groom your talent, and groom yourself well”.

 How was the lockdown period for you?

 “We were in Colombo for fashion week there, when the lockdown was announced. We somehow managed to get the last flight back to Bangalore, and I have been in lockdown since then. It was an interesting time. After years of travelling and being busy, I was left with a lot of time in hand. I started reading a lot again. I was watching amazing shows and movies on Netflix. I was interacting with my friends. Zoom calls with my team everyday. Social media has helped me keep in contact with my friends”.

 Your take on the future?

 “The future from now on will be slow fashion instead of fast fashion. Therefore, all the brands will have to reinterpret what they are offering to us. Consumers will now want to buy cloths that have value to it, that have a story, history, culture and heritage to it. Thus I feel this situation will help in bringing out the Indian fashion in the main market again around the globe. This will make Indian designers step into the international market and will make Indian artisans an important cob in the wheel”.

 Any Advice for the youngsters out there?

 “Today you have information at your fingertips. Make this the time for ideation. Open a book and write down all the ideas that will be useful in the future. You have the time for various research. Learn about stuff. Note making is so useful. Young designers, don’t be in a hurry to join the industry. Learn first. Learn about the culture and history of Indian textiles. Learn about branding.

Learn and work with young designers, brands and exporters. Don’t be in a hurry to launch your label. After 4 years of graduation from design school, take another 4 years to work and learn and earn a salary. Then make and create your own label. Your time will come. Your name has a story and use your name as the name for your label”.

To watch the full video, head over to our Instagram page