Director Omung Kumar shares on how he transformed Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Sarbjit
National Award-winning director Omung Kumar’s upcoming biopic ‘Sarbjit’ starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Randeep Hooda, Richa Chadda and Darshan Kumar has already created quite a buzz amongst fans courtesy it’s emotionally moving posters.
The film will be narrated through Sarbjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur’s eyes who went door to door, knocking for her brother’s justice and freedom for 23 yrs.
Opening up on the look of his lead actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, the director shared that one of his biggest challenge was to make Aishwarya Rai Bachchan ‘not’ look like Aishwarya in Sarbjit. With that thought he decided to start the film with the final look and recalls that when the actress looked into the mirror to see a woman with grey hair, wrinkles and glasses staring back, even she exclaimed in amazement for her unbelievable appearance.
Talking about it further he said, “Maybe one day I will make a film that will showcase the beautiful woman Ash is, but Sarbjit was a film that went beyond looks and glamour to focus on grit. My biggest triumph was when fans came to the Wagah Border or the India Gate for Ash’s autograph and failing to recognize her, would start looking around for her,” he laughs.
In the film one might see Ash as a young, carefree girl, happily married and pregnant, before some personal tragedies slowly bleach out the colours from her face, clothes and the backdrop. The eight months when she has no idea what happened to her brother, add lines of worry which get deeply entrenched when she learns his whereabouts. Struggling to keep the family together, Dalbir starts to grey, and when brother and sister finally meet in prison, they comment on how their baal has turned safed,” points out the director.
Sharing on Dalbir ‘s reaction after looking at Aishwarya in her avatar, he admits that she was happy the ‘khubsoorat’ Aishwarya was playing her, but they weren’t similar, physically. “Dalbir is short and small, Ash is taller.
But unless you are making a film on an iconic figure like Gandhi or Nehru, you can take such creative liberties. For me it was important to replicate the mannerisms and attitude, not the look, and transform the actress completely. That’s what makes Sarbjit my film,” he asserts.
Sarbjit makers are all set to launch their first official trailer on 14th April and the movie is slated to release on 20th May worldwide.
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This 1980 movie about reincarnation was one of the best reincarnation movies made in the Hindi film industry and Karz is also one of Subhash Ghai’s better made films. Fantastic song picturisation like the ‘Ek Hasina Thi’ and the eponymous ‘Om Shanti Om’ which had Rishi Kapoor dancing on a revolving LP on stage.
