Killer Cleavage

ITEM girl Meghna Naidu says she8217;s been made the bakra for all sorts of enhancing tricks, because she has no 8216;8216;natural cleavag...

ITEM girl Meghna Naidu says she8217;s been made the bakra for all sorts of enhancing tricks, because she has no 8216;8216;natural cleavage8217;8217;. It doesn8217;t mean she8217;s not well-endowed, just that she doesn8217;t have enough definition, Naidu explains patiently.

Since every shoot requires her to show skin, her green room8217;s crammed with 8216;8216;at least three people pushing me up and stuffing my outfits all at once,8217;8217; she sighs. That would explain those sometimes bumpy curves in Kaliyon Ka Chaman.

Not everyone suffers such twin trauma though. Musafir8217;s Koena Mitra says she doesn8217;t need stuffing or enhancement. But she swears by that classic pick-me-up8212;the push-up bra. 8216;8216;It gives a great lift, whether you8217;re big or small,8217;8217; she says.

But Mitra8217;s one of the few starlets who doesn8217;t have many worries in that department. Payal Rohatgi8217;s happy to share an inside story that8217;s not about her. An actor wanted his leading lady to look well-endowed, so the costume directors had to stuff the woman8217;s outfit with socks.

That girl could have taken a few lessons from TV vamp Sweta Keswani. 8216;8216;You have to rein in the stylists when they go overboard. Especially for item numbers, they try to make you look like you have bazookas,8217;8217; she laughs.

Socks are not the only filling. Naidu8217;s been stuffed with cotton wool and tissue paper. 8216;8216;I8217;ve also had silicon pads glued on, which are heavy as hell,8217;8217; she says.

Most costume designers have their own cleavage call, but everyone loves masking tape. During the shooting of a whisky commercial, model Cleo Isaacs8217; little black dress had to get progressively smaller until her cleavage took over the frame not our script. 8216;8216;I couldn8217;t wear a bra, so they taped my breasts from the side and from underneath, like a cup,8217;8217; she explains. This trick, used by models across the world, ensured her cleavage took centrestage.

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8216;8216;Make-up is used for shading and contouring,8217;8217; says stylist Sapna Malhotra. Keswani shares the bronzing basics: Darken cheeks with bronzer, use a white highlighter in the centre to define cleavage.

Want more oomph from a bottle? Baby oil is great to make that heaving chest glisten and, for extra shimmer, just mix in some silver powder. Rohatgi says highlighting the collarbone works wonders too. And you thought make-up was just for faces.

Parizaad Khan