Gundala, Director Joko Anwar Talks about the Superhero's Costume

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Director of the upcoming Gundala movie, Joko Anwar, recalled how the superhero’s costume was made in Los Angeles and the same production house where costumes for characters in Watchmen and Daredevil were made.

Realizing one of Indonesia’s classic superhero costumes took three months to make. Despite its production being handled overseas, its design was trusted to Caravan Studio in Indonesia.

“This is special, we made it in great detail,” said the director of Janji Joni and Satan’s Slaves in the press conference held at the SCTV Tower on Tuesday.

The main character playing Gundala, Abimana Aryasatya, said that he flew to L.A. to have the costume tailor made for his specific physical appearance. It took one week for the entire process up to wax printing his facial features.

However, three months in the making process, the costume did not fit on Abimana and had to fly a tailor from the United States to Indonesia to fix the problem.

“This got me scared since if I gain just a little weight it would change my body circumference,” he said.

The actor admitted that it was initially difficult for him to adapt to filming entire scenes wearing the full costume since it was heavy and hot. He recalled having to adapt to breathing behind the thick mask.

Abimana said wearing the costume would generally spend 15 minutes and that the movie studio had prepared four backup costumes throughout the filming of the movie that is scheduled to be released on August 29, 2019, with one of them allocated for his stunt double.

“The [costume] designer’s named Pak Kris, he’s a quiet gentleman,” said Abimana who will play the lead role as Gundala, a character that was first created back in 1969 by Hasmi.

CHITRA PARAMAESTI