If you love saris, there is no way you have missed homegrown brand Suta. Run by the dazzling sisters Sujata Biswas and Taniya Biswas — the Su and Ta behind Suta — their elegant saris have received a lot of love. What started with solid-colour mul cotton saris has expanded to various collections featuring quirky prints, bold colours and pastel hues in a variety of options — cottons, kantha, jamdani, sequins, silks and more.
L-R: Taniya Biswas and Sujata Biswas of Suta
Perhaps the popularity of the brand also depends on, as Sujata Sujata aptly described it, the fact that “the Suta saris hug you”. The love for Suta’s weaves has transcended on screen as well with many leading ladies sporting signature Suta styles both in shows and movies as well as outside of them.
My Kolkata caught up with the Suta sisters on a Zoom call for a candid conversation on the label making a splash in Bollywood and their starry clientele.
It began with a Pinterest post and KJo
Suta’s on-screen debut was with the OTT series Lust Stories in 2018. However, the association began in 2016 when Karan Johar and Eka Lakhani (the project’s costume designer) spotted a Pinterest post with Sujata in a Suta sari and, one day, a member of the team knocked on the half-closed shutter of the first Suta office in Mumbai. Seeing herself in a Pinterest post that she hadn’t put up herself and then an enquiry from one of the most sought-after directors of the country took Sujata by surprise. “We had only one staff member back then, Jaya. I asked her, who ‘Karan sir’ was and if someone had dropped by earlier, and the lady from Karan’s team replied ‘No no no! Karan Johar, he has sent me.’”. It was a jaw-dropping moment for them, added Taniya, sitting right next to her sister as they took a trip down memory lane.
Kiara Advani in Suta saris in ‘Lust Stories’
Karan Johar’s team picked a few looks for Kiara Advani (for Lust Stories) and after the look test, they received a cheque from Dharma Productions. While Kiara Advani sported pastel-hued mul cottons from their collection ‘Made in Heaven Mul’ in Lust Stories, in the latest edition of the OTT series Lust Stories 2, Neena Gupta draped the cotton acrylic and handloom cotton weaves from Suta’s ‘Second Skin’ and ‘Jamdani’ collections.
Neena Gupta in ‘Lust Stories 2’
“It was a dream come true. Since then, there have been many cheques from Anil Kapoor’s production (Anil Kapoor Film & Communication Network Pvt. Ltd.) and Mani Ratnam’s production (Madras Talkies),” said Sujata. Now, sometimes there will be big orders coming in and they don’t even know who the saris are for. Suta fans often inform team Suta upon spotting the label’s outfits in films and OTTs.
Dressing Bollywood
L-R: Vidya Balan has sported various looks in Suta saris, including for the movie ‘Mission Mangal’, and Pooja Bhatt in a Suta weave for ‘Bombay Begums’
After Lust Stories, many noteworthy artistes have been seen sporting Suta saris on screen. For instance, Pooja Bhatt wore cotton acrylic saris from their collection ‘Second Skin’ in Netflix’s Bombay Begums. Vidya Balan, is often spotted draped in Suta and sported mul cotton numbers from ‘Made in Heaven Mul’ in Mission Mangal. Bhumi Pednekar and Tanya Maniktala too also wore designs from the same collection in Durgamati and A Suitable Boy.
Shweta Tripathi and (right) Mithila Palkar
The “Suta girls”, as Neha Dhupia calls them, now have a steady who’s-who clientele and various actors from Mithila Palkar, Aditi Rao Hydari to Konkona Sen Sharma, Raima Sen, Subhashree Ganguly and Srabanti Chatterjee, have been dressing in the label’s flowy numbers. The list is only growing steadily.
This has also meant many an interaction and curation of special looks for their celeb patrons. While Arjun Kapoor is a fan of Sujata’s latest haircut, Sumana Chakravarti opted for the Suta look in The Kapil Sharma Show and Kajal Aggarwal opted for the ‘Dream Catcher’ sari and ‘Khamoshiyan’ blouse. Sonakshi Sinha, who wore Suta in Mission Mangal, received love for the look from her mother (Poonam Sinha), who then searched for the store to take a look at the collection. Taapsee Pannu had a style-check chat with Sujata for her Diwali celebration look, too, and Swastika Mukherjee visited the Suta owners’ home in Mumbai for a white sari-and-blouse look that she wanted to sport.
Subhashree Ganguly and (right) Raima Sen
Many celebrities now suggest their stylists to check out what’s on Suta’s racks. The conversations between the Suta sisters and celebrities now start from the saris but also move on to food, travel, work-life balance and more. These conversations are not just limited to actresses and actors. One of the memories from these chats that left an impact on Taniya was a conversation with The Sky is Pink director Shonali Bose. “She said anything you want to do is so limitless. There are so many things you can do!”
The Suta story
Today, the label has many popular celebrities as their clientele, which has led them to establish a system for working on collaborations. They have marketing team personnel who are contacted by stylists or members of the production teams. Sujata and Taniya, too, are often reached out to on social media and these are then redirected to Suta’s marketing team. Often, the full look is shared or the kind of saris that are needed is discussed, depending on the project. If a certain product is unavailable, Team Suta suggests other saris that can match the requirement. The label tries to get their sari photoshoots done in broad daylight to avoid confusion about the colour of the sari or the overall look of it.
Taapsee Pannu, and (right) Tisca Chopra in Suta for ‘Dahan’
“Suta as a brand is very transparent. We are honest with our policies and way of working. This is something that Taniya and I are very particular about,” shared Sujata on being asked how they see the label’s growing demand. A part of the success can also be attributed to the fact that every sari has a story, and the label regularly features new designs which often carry a message, like their recent collection for Pride Month.
The Biswas sisters did not envision the brand to reach the heights it has, becoming a household name and a go-to for celebrities. “We are very fortunate. Our team works really hard to make sure things reach on time whenever it’s being asked for. Suta also brings a lot of power. The designs are very simple and there is a positivity around the sari. It is an artisanal-led brand, so every sari has a lot of impact other than being just a product. It has a story,” shared Sujata, reflecting on how the entrepreneurs see the evolution of their label.
The dream forward and a wishlist
Sujata and Taniya, while being the perfect boss ladies, also have a great sense of fashion and while chatting about future projects, we floated the idea of them turning stylists. “It would be lovely if we get an opportunity like that. After listening to you, we are thinking, why didn’t we try,” said the duo, adding a giggle for good measure.
Upon being asked which Bollywood celebrity they would love to style, Deepika Padukone was Sujata’s answer. She wanted to see Madhuri Dixit in a Suta sari and her dream did come true when the dancing queen dressed in Suta for Maja Ma.
Madhuri Dixit Nene in a Suta sari
Priyanka Chopra, who gave the label a shoutout during the pandemic that ended up giving a huge boost to Suta, was the other lady the sisters would like to see in a Suta drape. For Deepika, the lookbook that Sujata and Taniya agree upon is a combination of a puffed sleeved blouse in a bright colour and with lots of flairs, teamed with a simple blush pink sari with gold border. For PeeCee, it’s a solid mul sari with a simple blouse, in an off-white combination — a traditional, earthy look.
From website to racks
As their designs are weaving their way into the hearts of people in and outside of Bollywood, the label has also been expanding their presence in the country with physical stores. What started with a series of pop-ups, has now grown into flagship stores in Mumbai, Thane, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad.
The Kolkata store is located in the shopping hub of Gariahat, in the Spencer’s building at Rash Behari Avenue. If you haven’t been yet — definitely drop by for their collection of saris, dresses, men’s and children’s wear and a collection of elegant and quirky accessories.
In the meantime, here’s Sujata giving you a peek into the Kolkata store:
