Art, craft & a lot of sweat

Jasmine Singh 

Akash Gaur, Rakesh Kumar, Gurpreet Dhuri and Harpreet Singh, four directors of Studio Hash, were asked to do prosthetic make-up for two characters of a Bollywood film. Like true artists, they packed their bags and moved to Mumbai for four months, hired a studio and worked with the director of that film. Today, when that film, Tumbbad, is out and everyone is talking about their work, these four can heave a sigh of relief! 

These ex-students of College of Art, Sector-10, Chandigarh, have no time to sit on their laurels, but, nevertheless, talk about their journey in the field of prosthetic make-up and hyper-realistic sculptures, which started in 2007-2008 when they had degrees in their hand and dreams in their eyes.

First take

Aakash is the first one to connect the dots, “Out of us, two are painters and two sculptors; initially, however, it was only three of us. It was at that time that we got a chance to work in Anurag Kashyap’s film Gangs Of Wasseypur. At that time, we met the director and writer of Tumbbad who asked us to work with him.” 

Well, rest isn’t history because the time taken to make Tumbbad’s history was relatively long! The film took almost six years to release. In between, these four worked on other projects — Diljit Dosanjh’s Arjun Patiala, Jimmy Shergill’s Darr At The Mall, Raaz 3, Sushant Singh Rajput’s Son Chidiya and the popular web series Ghoul, apart from other advertisements. “We were working in the silicon medium, which is not only new but expensive as well. And unlike what people think, prosthetic make-up is different from make-up in films,” shares Gurpreet, who believes Bollywood is now taking prosthetic make-up seriously. 

He adds, taking Tumbbad’s reference, “We had to make grandmother’s and Hastar’s body suit (characters in the film). Not only did it take a lot of research post the shoot, but also while shooting. It would ideally take six-seven hours to make the artiste slip into and out of the body suit, which was designed in such a way that it not only looked believable.”

Cosmetic effect

For those of us who are new to the term prosthetic make up, it is basically the process of using prosthetic sculpting, moulding and casting techniques to create advanced cosmetic effects. The art was revolutionised by John Chambers in Hollywood films like Planet Of The Apes. “The entire purpose of prosthetic make-up is to make a wound, a face, a scar or anything look relatable,” echo the four, who have also set-up an installation at the Mumbai Airport.