Thalaivii, Bell Bottom: When Women Transformed Into Real Life Icons With Prosthetics

The Thalaivii film has brought into focus how women have transformed into real life icons with prosthetics. Playing real-life characters on the silver screen can pose more challenges than a playing a fictional character. While actors can channel their own personalities to bring a written character to life, they have to follow every look and gesture of the real life character.

This is where prosthetics come into play. The actors have to match the real life personality's age, inflections of voice and the entire appearance. No matter what how well the actor can deliver dialogues and perform in scenes, if they don't look like the person they are playing the audience will hardly make any emotional connect with the narrative.

To ace that well, some actors in Bollywood went the extra miles. Here are five actors who transformed into real life icons with the help of prosthetics and some actual changes:

Kangana Ranaut In Thalaivii:

The recently released film starring Kangana Ranaut tells the story of late politician J. Jayalalithaa. To be able to play a charismatic personality who had control over Tamil Nadu state politics for decades, Ranaut had to undergo major transformations. Ranaut in her interviews has revealed that she had to gain over 20 kgs during the shooting of the film to look like the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Apart from that, she also visited Jason Collins' Studio in Los Angeles for a prosthetics makeover. Collins reportedly made a structure for Ranaut which would make her resemble the late politician.

Lara Dutta In Bell Bottom:

As the the trailer was launched, social media users started expressing disbelieve at how Lara Dutta did not look like herself at all. She essayed the role of former Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi in the film and really committed herself to looking like her. She sported the iconic white streak of hair, the spectacles and her nose. The whole makeover took many look tests and several hours of work. During which Dutta had to be patient with the massive amount of silicon sitting on her face. She looked so much like Indira Gandhi that her own husband and daughter could not recognise her.

Deepika Padukone In Chhapaak:

The actor essayed the role of a real life acid-attack survivor Lakshmi Agarwal. In order to depict what the survivors≤ go through, it was vital for Padukone to use prosthetics show burnt marks. The actor in her interviews has talked about how playing the role of Agarwal did not bother her except for the prosthetics that she had to work with. After the shooting of the film concluded, Padukone set her prosthetics make up on fire to heal from the experience. During an interview, Padukone said, "I literally had to burn the piece of prosthetics that I was wearing on the last day of the shoot. Because it impacted me in a way that I never experienced before. That was my way of trying at least to let go everything that I experienced.

Taapsee Pannu And Bhumi Pednekar In Saand Ki Aankh: 

The actors played the role of Shooter Dadis, Chandro Tomar and Prakashi Tomar who trained in shooting when they were already in their 60s. To be able to play the octogenarians, both Taapsee Pannu and Bhumi Pednekar had to wear heavy prosthetic make up. The process was so tricky that it reportedly took the actors over three hours to get ready for the camera. Both Pannu and Pednekar shared their struggles on social media. Pednekar posted picture of her face which had blisters because of the prosthetics. Taapsee Pannu had said that she used to get anxious if she will ever get her normal skin back.

Well, that is the price they had to play to make the audience to see at least a glimpse of the real life personalities they were playing on screen.

Views expressed by the author are their own.