Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; August 12, 2021)

When the trailer of Akshay Kumar’s BellBottom was launched in Delhi, Lara Dutta Bhupathi turned out to be the surprise package in it. The actress plays former prime minister late Indira Gandhi in the spy -drama set in the 80s. The movie revolves around the hijack of an aircraft and a covert mission to rescue passengers. Lara’s make-up, loaded with prosthetic elements, did the trick for her. Talking about it, National Award-winning makeup artist Vikram Gaikwad, says, “It’s a humongous responsibility to design the look of characters for a film set in a specific period. And it’s an even bigger responsibility when you are recreating the personality of a powerful figure like Indira Gandhi.”

Elaborating on the process of putting together Lara’s look, Vikram says, “BellBottom is a period film, which means all the characters in the movie belong to a certain era and have to look a certain way. For Lara’s look, we researched pictures and videos of Indira ji. She has three prominent features —eyebrows, nose, and a face cut, along with a particular hairstyle. We changed the shape and style of Lara’s eyebrows to make them look more dominant. We got prosthetics done on the nose and the wig was worked out in fine detail. Also, the wrinkles were created with a lot of shading work. It took the team around two to three trials before the shooting started. Each make-up session took about 3 hours. Make-up like this cannot happen without the dedication and cooperation of the artiste.”

Talking about the reactions to Lara’s look, Vikram says, “There is one reaction that has been consistent from the beginning — shock! During the first trial when Lara saw herself in the get-up, she was unable to find her old self. She was convinced about the look and that was very important for me. Everyone associated with the film was surprised. Even people close to Lara could not identify her.”
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Rishabh Suri (HINDUSTAN TIMES; August 12, 2021)

People are going absolutely gaga over how actor Lara Dutta Bhupathi has transformed into late politician Indira Gandhi for the upcoming thriller BellBottom. And major credit for it goes to makeup expert Vikram Gaikwad. Calling it a “humongous responsibility”, the three-time National Film Award-winning makeup artiste says, “The result you see is the outcome of a very thorough process. I read the script, then the casting and direction team informed us that Lara is going to perform as Indira Gandhi.”

Thus began the challenge, as Gaikwad felt that there’s no likeness between their faces. “However, Lara is a brilliant actor, so I had to do my best to deliver the look,” he explains, adding, “We’ve changed the style and shape of Lara’s eyebrows and done prosthetics on her nose.”

Two-three trials were done before the shooting began, and each makeup session took three hours. And the end result “shocked everyone” to say the least, according to Gaikwad. “There’s one reaction that kept coming since the beginning, and that was of shock. The most important thing is that Lara, Akshay (Kumar), Ranjit (Tiwari; director) and Jackky (Bhagnani; producer) trusted me and my team,” he adds.

While people were stunned with Dutta’s look, hair stylist Sapna Bhavnani tweeted her disappointment: “Such a bad wig though, can see the lining. But of course, you wouldn’t as you’re not a hair person...” Point this out and Gaikwad says it is not “worth commenting”.