Bollywood and its prosthetic connection
Actor Rajkummar Rao’s recently revealed look of a 324-year-old man in his next film, Raabta, has left everyone gaping. It has also brought back the focus on the use of prosthetics in cinema.
Other major films in which prosthetics were used to transform an actor’s look are Kapoor & Sons (2016; Rishi Kapoor turned into a very old grandfather) and Fan (2016; Shah Rukh Khan turned into a young person resembling himself).
Perhaps the first time Indian audiences got a real taste of what prosthetics could do was with Paa (2009; Amitabh Bachchan turned into a school boy suffering from progeria).
“Using good prosthetics is about making your audience believe in what you’re trying to portray,” says Rajkummar.
Shakun Batra, director of Kapoor & Sons, says, “You can age people up or down, and that brings flexibility. Now we’ve realized how much [prosthetics] can contribute.”Rajkummar’s look has been achieved using prosthetics by expert Zuby Johal and her team in Bengaluru. However, a team was also flown in from Los Angeles, USA, to finalise the look.
“Prosthetics can be anything from a character makeup or an extensive makeover to make the person look like someone else. For character makeup, once the look test is done, it takes about three hours. For makeovers, we have to take the person’s cast, sculpt it, then again take the cast of the sculpting,” says prosthetic make-up expert Ritoo K Jenjani.
As for Bollywood’s tendency to hire international names, Nahush Pise, a prosthetic artist, who has worked on films such as Black (2005) and Dhoom:2 (2006), feels that they are preferred because “they have evolved after many years of experience in prosthetic makeup. It’s very expensive and when [film-makers] want to spend the same amount of money, they think, ‘Why don’t we get someone from abroad?'”
However, makeup artist Subhash Shinde feels it’s more of a trust issue and that local talent must be given a chance to deliver, too.
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