Ajay Devgn turned into the great grumbler throughout the shooting of Ekta Kapoor's Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai because he was forced to wear white clothes.
Trademark feature
It's a known fact that Ajay loves colour and he griped on and on about sticking to one colour. Reveals Ekta, "In a biopic, the central character should have one distinctive trademark feature that stands out so we thought, 'why not let Ajay wear white?'
We had made 40 different sets of clothes for him in various colours but couldn't use them. We had to scrap them all." Also, as reported, his character is inspired by an underworld don of the '70s who only wore white. It is believed that he even lived in an all-white house.
Dressing up
Milan says, "We did research on what people wore at that time and discovered that white was a predominant colour in the '70s while the fabric most sought after, was double ghoda bosky.
In Kachche Dhaage, Ajay wore a white pathani suit at his father's funeral and looked good in it. In Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, it was his own idea to wear pathani suits."
Luthria adds that Ajay would get bored of wearing white every day and keep cribbing. "He was sick of white at the end of the shoot. He would grumble that there was nothing different and why couldn't he simply wear the same outfit over and over again! He was completely pakaoed with the colour."
Colour schemed!
In OUATIM, AJ plays '70s gangster Sultan. The character is based on a gangster during the '70s who loved the colour white. Sultan hates black as he's worked his way up as a coalie (hauling coals) in the docks. Since he dealt in work that wasn't 'white', he hated anything to do with the colour black.
The colour also expresses the leashed power and aggression in Ajay. Ekta believes that white would have instant recall. People remember and reconnect with Sultan's power when they see him in a single colour throughout. He is calm and organised. He claws his way from the bottom to take over the city.