What Rajni and Will Smith have in common

Mary Vogt is a senior Hollywood costume designer who has worked on several big budget productions.

She specialises in science fiction film costumes and her filmography includes Men in Black 1 & 2, Hocus Pocus, Inspector Gadget and Batman Returns.

Given her specialisation, Vogt was approached two years ago by the team behind filmmaker Shankar's new sci-fi drama Endhiran-Robot starring superstar Rajnikanth.

Her job was to design specific clothes for Rajnikanth and the many different robot costumes seen in the film.
contributor Aseem Chhabra in New York City about her experience designing costumes for Endhiran -- the most expensive film to be made in India.

Chhabra met Vogt at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, New York, where she is currently overseeing a huge project -- designing hundreds of costumes for director Barry Sonnenfeld's Men in Black 3, which will once again star Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones along with Emma Thompson and a variety of aliens.

Chhabra and Vogt sat down to talk in the designer's office. But before that there was a brief tour of the rooms where the Men in Black 3's costumes were being designed and stitched, and a visit to an elaborate set of a Chinese restaurant, where a crucial scene will be shot in November.