With her assortment of aliases in Bobby Jasoos, Vidya Balan is not the first major Bollywood star to look unrecognisable in disguises. Before Balan, there have been like Amitabh Bachchan, Shabana Azmi and Kamal Haasan, who’ve pulled off different looks.
Balan’s co-star Bachchan was completely unrecognisable as a child suffering from Progeria in Paa. Getting the superstar ready every morning was an ordeal, recollects director R. Balakrishnan, aka R.Balki.
“It took the make-up man four hours every morning. Once the make-up was done, Amitji couldn’t eat, drink or go to the bathroom. We were all petrified about his health. But this is not an ordinary man. He went through the long and painful process day after day for four hours,” he said.
Unrecognisable in his own right was Kamal Haasan in Chachi 420. He had to dress up as a nanny for his screen daughter and had to look attractive enough for the little girl’s grandfather Amrish Puri to fall in love with.
The actor used his aunt as a reference point for his character. The tireless perfectionist spent hours over the disguise.
“Getting into the skin of the character was very important. I didn’t want to mimic a woman’s body language or clothes. I wanted to feel talk, walk and react like an actual woman,” said Haasan about one of the best and most convincing drag-acts ever in Indian cinema.
When Shabana Azmi decided to play a witch in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Makdee, she didn’t know what she was getting into.
The method actress said: “It was harrowing, to say the least. The make-up used to take forever. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I couldn’t recognise myself. And then on top of it all, to have my husband comment, ‘Why did you need make-up to look like a witch?’ was too much!”
In Bobby Jasoos, Balan goes through a number of disguises — each more startling than the previous one.
Producer Dia Mirza gives full credit to her team.
“The team at work on Balan’s looks and get-ups was irreproachable. Vidyadhar Bhatt, who is a powerhouse talent, did the special make-up. Theia Tekchndaney was the costume designer. So we were spoilt for choice. The challenge was in choosing which look we went with,” she said.
Which of the disguises was the most difficult to do?
“The disguise of the maulvi in the opening sequence was the most time consuming. It took us about three hours during the looks test to polish it up,” said Mirza, adding that Balan took about an hour to get into each disguise.
