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Thugs of Hindoston: Here's what went behind designing the hair looks for Aamir Khan and Fatima Sana Shaikh
Aamir Khan and Fatima Sana Shaikh's hair style for Thugs of Hindostan decoded. Read on.
Thugs of Hindostan is an action thriller starring Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Katrina Kaif. The movie directed by Victor released this morning and is touted to be one of the biggest projects this year. Produced by YRF Studios, the movie has taken a bumper opening at the box office on the first day, if initial reports are to be believed. In the movie, while Aamir Khan plays Firangi Malla, a highly untrustworthy, witty person, Fatima plays Zafira, a warrior.
We got in touch with Avan Contractor, Bollywood’s go-to celebrity hairstylist, who has been the lady behind Aamir and Fatima's hair do in the movie. About styling Aamir's hair, she said, "Firstly, when I start designing a look, it is important for me to know the canvas I am working with to understand what the hair can and cannot do naturally. Luckily with Aamir, having worked with him now since the last 18 years, I know what his hair does; I understand how to mould and encourage his hair to fall the way that I want it to." She also revealed that it was difficult for her to convince Aamir that his hair will have curls in the movie. "Post Dangal, Aamir had been growing his hair and beard out. It was really funny for me to convince him that his hair naturally has a curl (Aamir doesn't think his hair is curly.) Though having created his look for Rang de Basanti, I knew for a fact his hair curls and after Dangal his hair did actually grow out curly and he decided to keep it."
She added, "As Victor's film was big on action, the look needed to be extremely maintainable while fitting in with his character. We also had to keep in mind the shooting conditions as well as action scenes in varied locations while designing his look. So while we did a lot of research to see what men in that era dressed and looked like, we referenced portraits of Indian, British, European and even just different tribes around the world. There was this 1 painting of a portrait from 1835 that I felt fitted quite perfectly with Aamir’s character. This was my inspiration for his look."
Avan has been styling Aamir's hair since Dil Chahta Hai. She also revealed the inspiration behind Fatima's look for the movie. She revealed, "Her character in Thugs is that of a warrior princess. So her’s had to be a no-fuss, tactical look. To lend an old world feel, we added a wave movement for texture to give her character that strong yet vulnerable look. Because of her short hair, we had to extend the length using extensions. So designing her look meant that we had to work backwards."
Avan Contractor, Aamir and Fatima's hair stylist for ToH
"Also with the amount of action involved, the hair needed to be designed as such that it would be practical for her character as well. So we did some extensive referencing of different braid styles and varied tribal ways of tying hair. Since there were no rubber bands back in the day, we incorporated threads as hair ties and accessorized with metal rings," Avan stated.
She concluded, "For both, Aamir and Fatima, we also coloured their hair to give it a more sun-kissed effect that would come naturally from being out in the open living by the ocean and on a boat."
Well, that's quite an insight, isn't it?
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