Actors share prosthetic makeup videos, industry feels trend catching up faster
Getting into the skin of a character has gone beyond mere six-packs and other physical transformation. Prosthetic makeup is the way forward, as a clutch of recent films show — Akshay Kumar in last year’s 2.0, Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Thackeray and Anupam Kher in The Accidental Prime Minister.
While the trend isn’t new, of late many actors and makers are sharing videos on social media giving a sneak peek into the process behind the scenes. Recently, actor R Madhavan, portraying scientist
S Nambi Narayanan in Rocketry: The
Nambi Effect, took to social media to share how he went about getting the look correct.
Fans are looking forward to clips from other upcoming films such as Chhichhore, Housefull 4, Romeo Akbar Walter, Bharat and Anurag Kashyap’s next film on octogenarian shooters, all of which are using prosthetics.
“The look is definitely half the battle won, the other half was really tough,” says Madhavan, adding, “the process took painfully long, about two days of sitting on a chair for 14 hours”.
National Award-winning make-up, hair and prosthetic designer Preetisheel Singh says for Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Thackeray, she had to make a nose and an appliance to hide the cleft in his chin to make him resemble former Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.
Director Shakun Batra says, “With advanced techniques, the desired look is attainable. That cinegoers enjoy watching it was evident from the reaction we received to the transformation video of Rishi Kapoor (Kapoor & Sons, 2016).”
Trade analyst Atul Mohan adds one also runs the risk of getting it wrong. “When Vivek Oberoi’s look from PM Narendra Modi’s biopic was revealed, social media users reacted negatively and the makers had to reconsider it. That’s why prosthetic makeup artists are often flown in from abroad.”
A full-body prosthetic might require eight hours, the face takes about five hours. While removing it, we need to make sure the skin does not get affected. PREETISHEEL SINGH
MAKEUP ARTIST