More than just looks

doweshowbellyad=0; Minissha Lamba. (TOI Photo)More picsSalma Hayek seems to love hairy experiences: After sporting a unibrow in the acclaimed Frida, she’s all set to wear a beard for her next movie. But she’s not the only Hollywood actress who’s dared to do something different with her looks for a movie role.
While Renee Zellweger put on weight for both Bridget Jones movies, Goldie Hawn underwent a simulated collagen treatment to get bee-stung lips for The First Wives Club.Charlize Theron not only gained weight, but shaved her eyebrows and wore prosthetic teeth to look more like Aileen Wurnos, the female serial killer she played in Monster. While Hollywood beauties have chosen to step out of their glamourous shoes at times, it is rare to see a Bollywood actress going to these lengths to suit her on-screen character looks-wise. A deglam role in Bollywood usually means a sans make-up look, with the exception of Seema Biswas, who shaved her head to portray the role of a widow in the movie Water. BT finds out if Bollywood heroines are averse to experimentating with their looks.
Actress Gul Panag, who has done many character roles like the ones in Dor and Manorama... Six Feet Under, feels that Indian actresses are too busy “protecting” their image to experiment with their looks. “Their security lies in their ability to be instantly recognised, no matter what part they are playing. They are busy protecting their pin-up images to try and attempt being actors. It’s the exact opposite with ‘real’ actors in the west,” she says, and adds that given the opportunity, she would love to do what Charlize Theron did in Monster or what Rene Zellweger did in Bridget Jones. “As an actor, it’s one’s job to play the role judiciously. By always projecting the same look, one is not acting, but modelling. The whole point of acting is to be able to look different as and when the role demands,” she says, adding that one problem is the serious dearth of scripts that demand a drastic change in looks.
Agrees actress Tara, who has often done deglam roles. “We are waiting for such roles and wouldn’t hesitate to change our looks for them. It all depends on the character and the script,” she says. According to her, a heroine will find acceptance from the audience if the movie is good, irrespective of the look portrayed. “The audience doesn’t have a fixed image in mind and will appreciate a good actor even if she looks different,” she says. Tara herself gained weight for Hosa Anubhava, in which she played an uncouth woman. “The character was very rude and brash and needed to look a certain way. So I had to put on weight for the role,” she says.
Actor Minissha Lamba, who played the role of a simple Kashmiri girl in Yahaan, says that while there have been very few cases of heroines going for drastic make-overs, actors have nothing against experimentation. “Whenever there has been a requirement, actresses have looked the part. We don’t have such roles written for us but the industry is changing and there are movies with new concepts. So you might see women going in for such roles,” she says, and adds that if the character needs it, she wouldn’t mind putting on weight or totally changing her look. “If I have a great script and the character demands a total make-over, I would go for it,” she says.