Mumbai-based Isha Mantry, who described herself as a ‘Coffee lover and Neon guzzler’ on Twitter, would probably have gone ahead to have a glorious career in Bollywood as a talented costume designer, had it not been for her tragic death at the young age of 27. The talented designer, who had recently worked the styling of a catalogue that was shot at Swanand Farm in Alibaug, had posted pictures of the shoot on Instagram about two weeks ago. It was perhaps to take some time off from her work schedule and bring in the New Year amidst celebrations that Kitty, as she was fondly known, came down to Goa with her friends, but life had something else in store for the young group.
After graduating from NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology), Isha started working as an assistant to acclaimed designer, Nidhi, who has worked on various film projects like 1920: Evil Returns, Haunted, Dangerous Ishq and many others. An ardent fan of designer Bhanu Athaiyaji, Isha also looked up to Sonam Kapoor for her refreshing fashion sense. After working on a few projects for almost 3 years, Nidhi suggested her name as a second costume designer on a film project which saw her work on films like the Arshad Warsi starrer Zila Ghaziabad, Kismat Love Paisa Delhi and Raaz 3 and Isha made her way into Bollywood as an Assistant Costume Designer. Isha’s work saw her take the complete responsibility as a full-fledged costume designer with films like Hate Story 2 and Horror Story. While these films made Isha popular in the Bollywood circuit, the film that took her to greater heights was yet to come.
2014 brought bigger success to Isha as she was trusted with the role of designing costume for the Priyanka Chopra starrer, ‘Mary Kom’. The biopic of the acclaimed Manipuri boxer was known as her best work till date. Perhaps it was her work in this film that caught the attention of Sanjay Leela Bhansali who approached the young designer to work on an upcoming film. This was not before she executed her skills on the Bipasha Basu starrer ‘Creature 3D’.