Costume designer Navin Shetty has worked on the Singham franchise since its inception. But with Singham Again bringing together the three established super cops—Ajay Devgn’s Bajirao Singham, Akshay Kumar’s Sooryavanshi, and Ranveer Singh’s Simmba—he had the task of lending a different look to each on-screen hero.

“Rohit sir’s [Shetty, filmmaker] brief was that he wanted Ajay’s civilian look to be different from the previous Singham editions. At the same time, he didn’t want me to lose the strong, tough persona of Bajirao Singham. We have given him solid colours with denims,” says the stylist, breaking down Devgn’s look in the Diwali release.

Next came Kumar and Singh’s avatars. Navin says he thoroughly enjoys working with Kumar. “When you have a fit actor like Akshay sir, you get an upper hand to play around with styles and cuts. Ranveer used to be flamboyantly dressed [in his personal appearances]. Rohit sir wanted to break that image with Simmba [2018].”

Deepika Padukone and Tiger Shroff are the latest entrants in the cop universe. “The youth looks up to Tiger when it comes to fitness. Rohit sir wanted Tiger to look muscular and tough.”

The designer’s brief for Arjun Kapoor’s antagonist was simple—depict him as an all-evil being. “He is the Raavan of the story. We experimented a lot with Arjun’s hair, make-up and costumes. Black was the colour for this guy—strong, wild and deadly.”