Covering Bollywood and the Hindi Cinema

Aamir Khan in his latest blog entry talks about his character Bhuvan from Lagaan and how he prepared for the role. Do check out the video which has AK trying all sorts of mustaches

 

"Creating Bhuvan was tricky because he is such an all round good guy. No weaknesses. Characters like this have a tendency to get boring. I began at his core. What is his strongest quality? What is the quality about him that stands out the most? Based on the script I felt it was his inner strength. He's got tremendous courage, inner strength and resolve. How do I project that physically? I went for two imp body signals for this. One I kept my back ramrod straight at all times. I conciously avoided stooping or slumping my back. Two, I divided my body weight equally on both legs. Meaning, I avoided standing with my weight on one leg. So, feet shoulder lenght apart, weight evenly distributed on both legs, back straight and head held high, not too high (makes you look proud). Thats the clasic Bhuvan posture. Then his eyes are very steady. They hold your look if he is looking at you. He is not in a hurry to look away from your eyes. And when they do move they move very steadily. (Unlike Aakash from DCH whose eyes are constantly darting around. Akash is slouchy, neck jutting forward and twinkling eyes, always uyp to some mischief). Okay, I'm not getting into basic stuff like his economic background and his cultural background etc. He is a villager in 1893 so he should sit, stand, walk, eat like a villager etc. Right now I am more concerned with his personality. The other extremely imp quality about Bhuvan is his innocense. Its not something we associate immediatly with Bhuvan but if you consider that he agrees to such a absurd bet, a bet that he is sure to lose, it pretty much means that unless he has some ammount of innocence in him he would never agree to a bet like this." He genuinely believes that they can succeed in whatever this Captain is asking of them. But we need just a touch of innocence. Not too much otherwise it will dilute his strength. Now one of the basic ways to project innocence is having a wide eyed look on your face. Open your eyelids a bit, wide eyed innocent look. But thats too much innocence, kills the strength. I racked my brains for this one. I did not want to act innocent, I wanted just a touch. I called Micky Contractor (one of the best make-up artists in India)," Micky is there any way to add innocence to my face through make up?" His answer was pat... "Curl your eyelashes." !!! As simple!!! So thats what I did through the film!!! When you curl your eyelashes it makes your eyes look slightly bigger without you having to actually open them wider. Touch of innocence! Exactly what I was looking for. The one other physical aspect that Ahsu and I argued for very long was a moustache. Not a fake one. But a real one that I would grow. Ashu did not want it so I finally went with clean shaven, but consider this; it hasn't rained for a year, last year it hardly rained, this year 2 months of the monsoon have passed and no signs of clouds. Water is a big issue and is potentially a VERY BIG issue... and Bhuvan shaves every day!!! The rest of the villagers should beat the shit out of him. Pani ke vaande hain aur tu sala roz shave kar raha hai. I felt Bhuvan first off all should have a moustache as any villager in a small village in 1983 in India would, then, because of lack of rain he should have a stubble at most times. Maybe he'll shave on Janmmashthami or a few other imp occasions but by and large he'll have a stubble."