Revealed: Randeep Hooda's transformation to Sarbjit

'Randeep Hooda is a chameleon who takes on the persona of any character he plays, whether its Charles Sobhraj, Raja Ravi Varma or Sarabjit Singh,' points out make-up specialist Renuka Pillai who worked with him on the Sarabjit biopic. She admits to some resemblance between the actor and the farmer who inadvertently crossed the border, was convicted as a spy and spent a lifetime in Pakistan's jails trying to prove his innocence. 'We enhanced the likeness by lightening his skin tone, darkening his eyebrows and moustache.Randeep with his performance, and some help from costume, hair, make-up and SFX, metamorphosed into Sarabjit.'
'This scene from the beginning of the film was shot towards the end after Randeep had gone through the trauma of losing 18 kgs in 28 days. He has good skin and a great body, looks naturally fresh and young on screen, so all I had to do was use a little concealer and a nude liquid foundation to make him more camera friendly, wipe away the after effects of his arduous prep,' says Renuka, adding that they applied some sand powder on his body too since he's in the akhada.
After torturing him for days, the prison authorities across the border try to make Sarabjit look halfway decent for some photographs, giving him a bath and a haircut. 'I did the opposite, adding dark circles below the eyes and using my make-up skills to give him an air of gaunt tiredness that came from being in captivity,' reveals Renuka.
Aishwarya Rai spotted on the sets of 'Sarbjit'
'When you don't brush your for teeth or wash your mouth days, the teeth start to decay. We got dentures called veneers pro made in Canada to show the cess of tooth decay through three stages,' informs Renuka.
She points out that Sarabjit was only in his 40s when he died, but looked years older and it wasn't enough that the hair, beard and moustache turned grey. 'The biggest challenge was to show pigmentation of the skin without losing continuity.'
Cuts and festering wounds, rat bites and dry peeling skin, Sarbjit was undoubtedly Renuka's biggest professional challenge because the abrasions had to be created through cosmetics and special effects. What made the job doubly difficult was that fresh cuts looked very different from six-month old wounds or two-year scars.
'Even the dirt and grime changed depending on which jail he was in and for how a long, if he'd been allowed shower recently and how he had been tortured,' she says.
To detail the ageing process, the team decided against using any prosthetic pieces. Instead, Renuka used the green marble fixer which she had learnt to apply during a course in make-up in Los Angeles and which she had in stock.
'I blended it with alcohol colours so it wouldn't smudge or rub off. This I applied on Randeep's face, sometimes as many as five layers, waiting for it to dry to carve out wrinkles and age lines. It was a tedious process for both the artiste and the make-up artist, a one-time application taking as long as two hours to set. But once it was in place, it stayed on for six eight hours at a go,' she reminisces, adding that they also used a prosthetic leg as Sarabjit had developed an infection in one. 'Whenever the leg was visible I added cracks on the heels between shots.'
Listen to Sarbjit songs on Gaana.com
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