Changing faces

Putting on 12 kilos for a few scenes in ‘The Dirty Picture’ was the easiest thing for Vidya Balan to do. The difficult part was to create the seven different looks that she has in the film. In some scenes she was required to look extremely skinny,and after she achieved her dreams of becoming a film star she had to look fuller and attractive,and during her professional downslide,sport a jaded appearance. This not only meant long hours of make-up,but also the use of face and body prosthetics. “I knew prosthetics was all about using artificial,but very lifelike parts to change one’s look,but I was amazed how drastically it could change body contours. The character Vidya plays is from the south film industry,where actresses are known for being voluptuous,but despite Vidya putting on the 12 kilos,we had to use prosthetics to accentuate her body curves and to get a sexy look,” says the film’s director,Milan Luthria.

The procedure can not only change body contours but is also used to change the shape of one’s eyes,add lines on the face,make cheeks look fuller or sunken,accentuate a jawline etc. “It’s like a reconstruction of body parts,which is very striking. As of now,only Vidya’s sensuality is being noticed in the promos,but if you observe her closely,you will notice these minor ‘reconstructions’,” points out Luthria. The director attributes Vidya’s looks to Vikram Gaekwad,the make-up supervisor,and Vidya’s patience to sit through the two-and-a-half hours of make-up every day. “The difficult thing about using prosthetics is that it takes long to put on,and the material used starts melting in high temperatures,and if that happens the procedure has to be started all over again. Though Vikram had warned us about this,we were still unprepared for the meltdown that happened as we were shooting last month when it was very hot in Mumbai,” admits Milan.

The director says that the biggest challenge was the early trial-and-error phase when Vidya’s character was being conceived,“She had to look waif-like with a darkish complexion and oily hair initially,which was to be a complete contrast to the last phase when she goes through personal and professional lows. Both these looks needed extremely careful make-up,which had to be touched up frequently. Overall for all her seven looks,we must have tried out about 70-80 look tests before we settled for what you will see on screen.”

‘The Dirty Picture’ which also stars Naseeruddin Shah,Emraan Hashmi and Tusshar Kapoor,releases on December 2.