For makeup artist Dikshita Jindal, transforming into different celebrities might just be passion turned profession, but for those who follow her videos on Instagram, it’s nothing short of magic. Using prosthetics and special-effects makeup techniques, the 25-year-old, who hails from Delhi, has successfully recreated looks of over a 100 Indian celebrities.

Her latest Instagram reel, where she created Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan look, has crossed 13.4 million views in just 20 days. “It was crazy how people love this Pathaan transformation video. I uploaded and within a day, it garnered so many views,” an excited Jindal tells us.

The artist, currently in Canada, pursuing professional makeup studies in advanced prosthetic effects makeup, shares, “I really enjoyed creating the Pathaan look because I was doing a transformation after a long time, as I’d been busy with shifting and studies. Now that it has gone viral, I really hope Shah Rukh sees it and comments on it.”

Talking about her tryst with makeup, Jindal recalls being very passionate about makeup since childhood. Then, while she studied engineering, she bought a makeup kit with her savings and tried her hand at fun videos.

“I saw a few international artists transforming themselves into celebs, and I got really inspired. I thought to myself, ‘Why don’t I do it for Bollywood celebrities?’ I tried some looks with Indian celebs. That’s how I started practising and learnt these skills,” explains Jindal, who looks up to acclaimed British drag artist Alexis Stone and Brazilian makeup artist Letícia Gomes.

These transformations are, however, no cakewalk, and a lot goes into making them realistic and getting the intricacies right, asserts Jindal. “On average, it takes me about five to seven hours to do a transformation look. But there’s a lot of research that goes into it beforehand and also afterwards — during editing,” she shares, adding that getting everything right is important, including the choice of music for the video.

Jindal reveals that the longest it has ever taken her to recreate a celebrity look was 15 hours, when she transformed into the late actor Sidharth Shukla. “It was quite difficult and challenging because of his face cut and minute details,” says the artist, whose work was praised by actor Anupam Kher, who also shared it on his social media.

Jindal feels India has a huge market for prosthetic makeup and a lot of it has to do with the evolving film industry. “Many people in India don’t know that makeup is used differently in different industries. I see the prosthetics and special-effects makeup industry growing in the future — there are so many films that require artists to create bruises and cuts, or dusty makeup etc. For example, in the movie ’83 (2021), we saw Ranveer Singh being transformed into cricketer Kapil Dev using prosthetics, and he looked so real. So, it’ll only grow in the coming times,” says Jindal, who aspires to “be part of a Marvel movie or share screen space with Shah Rukh Khan.”