Lara Dutta on 'Bellbottom': 3 hours to become Indira

Lara Dutta; (right) File photo of Indira Gandhi

Lara Dutta essays the role of Mrs Indira Gandhi in 'Bellbottom'. Her father, Wing Commander LK Dutta, who was with the Indian Air Force, and flew the late prime minister whenever she would travel across the country on official trips, provided a lot of insights. "I had a personal reference point," says Dutta.

It took Dutta three hours to transform into Gandhi. "We started by creating the entire mould of my face, and then making prosthetic features," Dutta said in a conversation. "We did it as early as the end of June last year. We started working on creating the prosthetic features and putting them together."

Recalling the process, she says, "Getting her hairstyle, which was such an iconic part of her, was quite an effort." Apart from the look, she says she paid attention to Gandhi's body language.

"The most important thing is to get the body language and voice right. A lot of homework went into that as well. Ranjit [Tewari], our director, would keep sending me videos of interviews of Mrs Gandhi so that we could focus on little things, like her hand movements, eyes, reactions to situations. These are the things that make working as an actor worthwhile."

She admits to being nervous and excited in equal measure. "We had an incredible make-up and prosthetic team led by Vikram Gaikwad. I am happy with what I think I have done. For a change, I am pretty confident."

Bell Bottom, starring Akshay Kumar and Vaani Kapoor is among the first big productions to hit cinema halls as restrictions eased. Instead of taking the
digital-first route, it marked the return of films in theatres, a move that was applauded by filmmakers and actors who've been encouraging cine-goers to return to cinema halls and watch movies.

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