From Mughal-e-Azam to Bajirao Mastani: Bollywood’s hair inspiration from ancient fashionistas

As you enter the Quarters Guard Room at Red Fort, featuring an exhibition on the hairstyles in Indian art – Kesh Vinyas – and look closely at the sculptures and paintings on display, iconic Bollywood songs like 'Na jhatko zulf se paani' and 'O haseena zulfon wali' cross your mind.
READ: ​Deepika Padukone finds Ranveer Singh's look in 'Bajirao Mastani' 'hot'
Organised by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the exhibition showcases hairstyles over the centuries, right from the Harappan civilization to the Mughal period.You can’t help but marvel at the intricately done hair and draw parallels with hairstyles featured in several Bollywood period films. While Bollywood hairstylists tell us that these ancient fashionistas have always been an inspiration for them, the ASI officials claim that ancient hairstyles will remain the stock gyaan for future stylists too.
The choti with an attitude
You must have heard the song 'Kali teri choti hai paranda tera lal hai', but do you know why the choti (braid) is so filmi? Aparajita Sharma, an ASI official who works at the National Museum, tells us, “You must have observed that in many old movies, the heroine has a long braid which she often swings with attitude. This particular sentiment has been borrowed from history. For example, the photograph that we used to announce exhibition is of a woman with a long braid. We decided to use that particular statue because it stands out and serves our purpose.” Of course, Bollywood has used the braid for decades to establish the nakhre wali haseena.
References from sculptures used to create the perfect look
When it comes to hairdos in period films, hairstylists say they always take inspiration from historical paintings and ancient sculptures. Hairstylist Javed Habib says, “Mughal-e-Azam is the perfect example where the hairstyle, of both the actor and the actress, was inspired by old pictures and other historical material and keeping that in mind, something new was created. So the heroine had a long braid, but with curls on the forehead.”

Makeup artiste and hairstylist Pandhari Juker, who has been part of Bollywood for 69 years, says that for most old black-and-white films, like Amrapali, hairstylists used to take ideas from sculptures and paintings in Khajuraho and Ajanta and Ellora. He says, “The high bun with curls on the forehead came from the scriptures and the long choti with different kinds of braids was inspired by ancient sculptures. A braid, at least knee-length, was a must for dance sequences in most black-and-white films and hair extensions were used keeping in mind the height of the actresses. Many old paintings show special hair accessories and flowers, which were commonly used as adornments. Different braid styles were created for different looks.”
Kesh Vinyas exhibition is our hatke effort: ASI officials

Explaining the idea behind the exhibition, Aparajita says, “We keep organising exhibitions on various themes. This time, we wanted to do something that people could connect with and after a lot of brainstorming, we came up with the idea of hairstyling. People from ancient ages were far more stylish than us. Without any equipment like straighteners or curlers, you can see they used to sport long straight hair, braids, spikes, curls and various other styles. Kesh sajja or hairstyling was the most important aspect of their beauty. And it’s not just women who had long beautiful hair. Even men had long hair. We have put up a photo here where a man and a woman both have styled buns. I am quite amused by how people are reacting when they spot a sculpture with a spikes or curls. ”
Hair stylists go back in history to research

Aparajita says, “People copy from Bollywood because they have no idea that the true styles are hidden in our history. When a period movie is made, the stylists working for the film look up history to do their research. Of course they don’t go to an ASI official or historians, but they definitely do their research. Bollywood stylists imitate history and people imitate Bollywood.” Pointing at a photo at the exhibition, she says, “This woman is trying to dry her wet hair and a swan is swallowing the droplets. It reminds us of the beauty that Bollywood has portrayed on screen in several films.”
Hairstyles were a matter of position in society
The hairstyles depended on the wealth, age and social status of the individual and they used to decorate their hair with jewellery, beads and feathers. Mostly, women used to wear their hair long, usually knee-length or longer. The ASI officials also told us that the hairstyling of a king or a princess was quite different from that of a person from a lower economic background. Aparajita says, “Our forefathers were far more style conscious than us and the ladies used to spend hours taking care of their hair. Only styling hair was not enough, they used to put different items in hair, like shells, gold clips, flowers, strings of pearls and many such things to enhance their looks.”

TR Sharma, regional director, ASI, tells us, “We all know that the war of Mahabharat was fought because Draupadi said that she won’t tie her hair until she washes it with the blood of the Kauravs – such was the importance of hair, and we want people to understand that. This exhibition would be an eye-opener for people.”
We had to read and then recreate: Bajirao Mastani designers

The upcoming movie Bajirao Mastani is set in the 1700s, and the designers and stylists for the movie referred to that period to style the film’s actors. Besides the anarkalis, angrakhas, farshi pyjamas, Anju Modi also designed headgear to go with the period look of the characters. In one of the songs, Deepika Padukone’s Mastani is seen wearing a turban which was designed keeping in mind an old picture that the designer chanced upon during her research. “For the character of Mastani, there was very little historical reference and I had to read and recreate everything keeping in mind the 18th century era. I took a year and a half to research and make notes on the Marathas. It is a challenging task to design for a period movie and one has to recreate not just the costumes but the entire look. I travelled to places like Nashik, Pune, Paithan and Ajanta for references of the Maratha empire. I also studied material and miniature paintings at the Salargunj Museum in Hyderabad as the Nizams and the Peshwas belonged to the same period. Then there were Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings that gave me an insight into the kind of dressing they had and also the look they preferred. It was all these historical references that helped me recreate the royal look for the characters in the movie,” says Anju.

The characters’ makeup and hairdos were also done as per the historical references available. Says Preetisheel Singh, hairstylist and makeup artist for the movie, “Since Bajirao Mastani is based on Maratha history, we had to go through a lot of Maratha warriors’ original looks. We had to look at old images and visualize the looks keeping in mind the requirement of the script. Most of the male cast members of the movie either had to go bald, starting from Ranveer Singh, or had to put on bald caps. For the female Maratha cast, having a proper tight khopa (Maratha bun) was a major requirement.

Paintings of the 18th century, along with a lot of history books, helped us learn about the right kind of hairdos the characters required. Details like tilaks and hair buns were different for various clans and needed to be right to complete the look.”
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