Bollywood's dusky beauty Deepika Padukone's complexion has been
lightened by three shades to suit her Chinese look in the film 'Chandni
Chowk To China', says stylist Mallika Bhat.
Bollywood's
dusky beauty Deepika Padukone's complexion has been lightened by three
shades to suit her Chinese look in the film 'Chandni Chowk To China',
says stylist Mallika Bhat.
'Deepika has a dusky skin tone. In
'Chandni Chowk To China', she plays two different roles - one with a
Chinese look and the other with an Indian look. We worked on her
complexion for both the looks,' Bhat told IANS over phone from Mumbai.
'For the Chinese look we gave her a three shades
lighter complexion than her original. Then we gave it a yellowish tinge
that is typical with Chinese people and teamed it with sharp and
prominent make-up.
'For the Indian look, we gave her a shade darker
in terms of complexion, used her normal hair and gave slightly
over-the-top make-up but nothing extraordinary,' she added.
Bhat, who is responsible for Deepika's Chinese
eyes and poker-straight fringed hair in the film, says working on the
actress' look was difficult, as she does not fit the bill of a Chinese
girl easily.
'It was a very challenging task. Director Nikhil
Advani had briefed me very specifically about the look that he wanted
Deepika to flaunt in the film. But Deepika was not an easy girl for it.
'She has a dusky complexion,
large, almond-shaped eyes and long eyelashes that are totally opposite
to what Chinese women look like. So I had to kind of work against
nature to get the right look for her,' explained Bhat.
A lot of research went behind Deepika's Chinese look in the film.
Most often in Bollywood, stylists settle for
cosmetic tapes at the end of each eye to give the Chinese look to
actors, but Bhat says it wasn't a feasible option because Deepika's
doctors had advised her against their use.
'Cosmetic tapes would have been very painful for
Deepika. She would have to keep them on for the 10-12 hours of
shooting. It is one of the easiest ways to get that Chinese look, but
it was not feasible and totally out of question to expect Deepika to
wear it for 60-70 days of shooting,' said Bhat.
To overcome this, Bhat created the look using eyeliner.
'I gave her a slightly slanted and curvy
eyeliner to make her eyes look narrow. We gave her light shade contact
lenses besides working upon her eyelashes also.'
To enhance the look, Deepika was made to wear a specially cut wig with 'poker straight and rebonded hair'.
'Indians
have thick hair, but in China they have fine hair; so that aspect also
had to be kept in mind. I got the wig cut by celebrity hair stylist
Ryan D'Rozario,' said Bhat.
The 23-year-old actress also sports long fringes
as a result of the stylist's research on Chinese women. She revealed
that nearly 80 percent of youth there flaunted fringes or horizontal
bangs. 'It gives the person a very Oriental look,' she said.
According to Bhat, it took her just four hours
to decide upon Deepika's final look along with her team. After that, it
took her team just half an hour to do up the Chinese look every time it
was required.
Though Bhat says she isn't confident that she
has got the look 'bang on', she admits to having 'managed to make
Deepika look at least half-Chinese'.
Releasing Jan 16, 'Chandni Chowk To China' also
stars superstar Akshay Kumar in the lead. The action-adventure-comedy
is about an Indian cook who goes to China and has many adventures.
Deepika plays Akshay's love interest in the film.
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