The divas who donned a rustic, rugged look

The best actors, they say, are those who get into the skin of the characters they are portraying, quite literally. Often, this requires a physical transformation that goes contrary to the actor's usual glamorous image. With Alia Bhatt playing an earthy Bihari woman in the soon-to-be-released Udta Punjab, we take a look at some yesteryear stars and current divas who shed their glamorous avatars and looked bold and beautiful on the screen.

The producers had to battle it out in court to get their film cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), but Udta Punjab has been a challenge for Alia Bhatt from the moment she was signed on for the role of a rustic, impoverished woman. Bhatt, 23, not only shed her glamorous avatar but merrily smeared the full tan on. After all, as Bhatt herself said, how else would one look when one spends the whole day working in paddy fields in the hot sun? This de-glam role is expected to go a long way in shaping Bhatt’s career.

So the film did not click at the box office and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is now 40-plus. But it still takes courage for a former beauty queen (she was Miss World 1994) to appear in a film with no make-up and long grey streaks in her hair. Unfortunately, as an actress, Rai Bachchan was found wanting again. If only her screeches were a little muted, she might have pulled off her finest role ever with Sarbjit.

A jabbermouth she may be, but Kangana Ranaut is an actress who goes by instinct. A fashionista to the T, Ranaut is every designer’s delight as she loves to experiment with her look and couture. Even when her films weren’t clicking at the box office, she could be seen burning up the ramp or lighting up magazine covers. So, it was very un-Kangana-like to sport the goofy, rugged look of an aggressive Haryanvi woman in Tanu Weds Manu Returns. Apart from the tan, the protruding teeth made it special. What stood out, however, was her double role, with the primary character unafraid to show up in front of her parents in just a bath towel. Kumari Kusum and Tanuja were like chalk and cheese, underlining the versatility of the actress. Kangana Ranaut bagged her second successive National and Filmfare awards for this film. One can safely assume the jury and fans were moved more by Kumari Kusum than by Tanu.

Dimple Kapadia made her debut as a 16-year-old in Bobby (1973) wearing short dresses. Then she stunned everyone by quitting films, opting to marry reigning superstar Rajesh Khanna. She returned 11 years later and in Saagar went topless for a brief moment. She was then lost to cliched commercial cinema merely playing the hero’s love interest. It did not matter if her character was an uptown girl or the girl-next-door; like most heroines in the 1980s and 1990s, Kapadia was reduced to playing second fiddle.
Then, in 1993, Kalpana Lajmi made Rudaali, a film on professional mourners – poor Dalit women who would mourn the death of upper-caste men for a fee. For the lead role, Lajmi cast the glamorous Kapadia, who was in her mid-30s then. The transformation of the sexy star into a middle-aged rustic indigent woman was unbelievable. Kapadia's mannerisms, attire, her command of the local lingo, stunned viewers as she coloured her hair gray and played mother to a young Raghubir Yadav. Kapadia bagged the National award for best actress for the film, which was also picked to be India’s official entry at the Oscars. Rudaali remains a defining role of Dimple Kapadia's long career.

Rekha had played the village belle in many films before but never had the Tamil beauty appeared with hideous scars in a film. Rakesh Roshan’s 1988 revenge saga Khoon Bhari Maang saw Rekha play wealthy widow Arti who falls prey to Kabir Bedi's wiles. Arti is left severely scarred after Sanjay (Bedi) dumps her off a boat and leaves her to hungry crocodiles. Arti miraculously survives, but thereafter she undergoes plastic surgery to correct her face. And that is where the scarred look ended. The rest of the film sees her masquerade as ramp model Jyoti, seeking revenge. But the film is still remembered for Rekha’s horrifying look after the devastating crocodile attack.

Parveen Babi and Zeenat Aman were Hindi cinema's first sex symbols, rebellious young women who refused to play the archetypal desi heroines in the 1970s. So, it came as something of a shock when Raj Kapoor signed the ravishing Aman for Satyam Shivam Sundaram. Legend has it that Vidya Sinha, Hema Malini and Dimple Kapadia were approached for the role but turned it down. That the character had to be sparingly clothed in some scenes probably did not help. Then, as the story goes, Aman heard that Kapoor was looking for a heroine and so landed up at his office at RK Studios dressed as a villager. One look at her, it seems, and Kapoor called off his search for Roopa.
Never before had the lead heroine in a Hindi film had a scarred face. Of course, never before had one seen a leading lady dressed like a tribal with very little covering her modesty. Aman grabbed the opportunity with both hands and the rest, as they say, is history.

Before Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi, Sharmila Tagore was the closest Hindi cinema had to a sex symbol. She was the first Hindi film actress to don a bikini on screen – in An Evening In Paris (1967). All of 23, Tagore then made the bold move of playing a mother to Rajesh Khanna, who was 27 then. The film was Shakti Samanta’s Aradhana. Interestingly, Tagore played both the lover and, later, mother of Khanna, who had a double role in the film. At 23, it was impossible for the glamorous Sharmila Tagore to get wrinkles, and Hindi cinema was not very technically advanced then with prosthetics and cameras. While she did not look very much like a senior citizen, Tagore spoke and acted like one. So it wasn’t surprising to see her bag the Filmfare award for Best Actress for Aradhana.