Mixed Doubles
Mamta Gautam 30 and Rajiv Subba 30 OWNER Dirty Hands prosthetics company, Ahmedabad
Prosthetics for films has always scared me because of the poor quality. For Raaz3, I met the Dirty Hands team. I was ecstatic at the quality of their work.”
Vikram bhatt, Filmmaker
When they approached
Ra.one director Anubhav Sinha with their work, his reaction was, “You are five years ahead of your time.” National Institute of Design graduates Mamta Gautam, an architect, and Rajiv Subba, a sculptor, are into making life-size silicone mannequins that look as real as they get. Their studio in Ahmedabad, Dirty Hands, which they set up in 2008 with a loan of Rs 2 lakh from Gautam’s parents, has raised design, structure and hyperrealism into an art. Aren’t their sculptures the silicone equivalent of Madame Tussauds’s wax collection? Not really, says Subba. Albeit an expensive element, silicon affords possibilities wax doesn’t, he says. “Wax needs a lot of maintenance and correct temperature whereas silicone material is more realistic. In movies, our sculptures can easily replace live body doubles,” he adds. Mastering the art wasn’t easy. “There was no one to teach us how to go about it. Besides, we had to import silicone from the US,” says Subba. Practice makes perfect. And perfection comes at a price. Dirty Hands mannequins start from Rs 10 lakh onwards. Yet their turnover in 2011 was nearly Rs 50 lakh. Gautam says Dirty Hand’s team of “15 talented and skilful individuals” is now working on building lifelike body parts. “The texture, colour and even patterns of body hair will be as close to the real thing as possible,” she adds. They made a Gandhi sculpture for Gandhi Research Foundation at Jalgaon and many sculptures for the Jain Mahotsav that was held in Ahmedabad.
Ticket to Bollywood
Dirty Hands sculpts prosthetics for films and has done work for six films including Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of wassey pur and Vikram Bhatt’s Raaz3.
Hand it to Them
Gautam and Subba are now working on developing prosthetic body parts with silicone, which no one is using in India yet. Silicone looks more realistic, is more flexible and is low on maintenance, unlike wax figures. They also plan to create toilet seats and shower areas for elderly people.