Punjabi Gabru
Elite
Priyanka's Mother Helps With 7 Khoon Maaf
It is hard for age to go against you when it is going for you in your 20's. Such was the dilemma faced by Priyanka Chopra on the sets of 7 Khoon Maaf, where she needed to transform into a 65 year old.
In this forthcoming and much-awaited film, Chopra's character Suzanna ages from 20 to 65. The National Award-winning actress admits it wasn't easy. "It has been the most challenging part any actor could play. Playing Suzanna was tough for someone like me, who is still in her 20s."
A director's actress, Priyanka relied on the film's director Vishal Bhardwaj for help regarding her character's traits, transformation and evolution. Unafraid to ask for assistance, Priyanka even went to her own family for help.
"It was difficult to imagine myself as a 50 year-old woman. How does someone that old walk, talk? I decided to fashion my character on my mother," she says, quickly adding with a laugh, "Not that she is a killer!"
Apart from drawing inspiration from her mother's demeanor, the actress also used them to gauge what she herself, and thus Susanna, would look with age. "When we did our research, we learnt that Indian women don't age that fast. The make-up artists arrived from Drag Studio, the firm that worked on Benjamin Button and Lord of the Rings. The artists took snaps of my mom, aunts and my grandmom to see how women in my family have aged. And they designed my look accordingly."
Translating the family's aging process into prosthetics was not easy either. "We made the make-up artists' life hell since our call time would be 2 am! I would sleep by 7 in the evening, get up by 1.30 am, and by 2 am, I would be ready on the make-up chair. It would take five hours for my make-up to be done. Finally, I'd start shooting at 7 in the morning. By the time they were done working on the film, the make-up artists were like zombies," she laughs.
Chopra says the film has been "emotionally, mentally, and physically" exhausting.
Based on Susanna's Seven, a story by writer Ruskin Bond, 7 Khoon Maaf is the story of a femme fatale who kills her seven husbands, and Chopra plays the protagonist.
It is hard for age to go against you when it is going for you in your 20's. Such was the dilemma faced by Priyanka Chopra on the sets of 7 Khoon Maaf, where she needed to transform into a 65 year old.
In this forthcoming and much-awaited film, Chopra's character Suzanna ages from 20 to 65. The National Award-winning actress admits it wasn't easy. "It has been the most challenging part any actor could play. Playing Suzanna was tough for someone like me, who is still in her 20s."
A director's actress, Priyanka relied on the film's director Vishal Bhardwaj for help regarding her character's traits, transformation and evolution. Unafraid to ask for assistance, Priyanka even went to her own family for help.
"It was difficult to imagine myself as a 50 year-old woman. How does someone that old walk, talk? I decided to fashion my character on my mother," she says, quickly adding with a laugh, "Not that she is a killer!"
Apart from drawing inspiration from her mother's demeanor, the actress also used them to gauge what she herself, and thus Susanna, would look with age. "When we did our research, we learnt that Indian women don't age that fast. The make-up artists arrived from Drag Studio, the firm that worked on Benjamin Button and Lord of the Rings. The artists took snaps of my mom, aunts and my grandmom to see how women in my family have aged. And they designed my look accordingly."
Translating the family's aging process into prosthetics was not easy either. "We made the make-up artists' life hell since our call time would be 2 am! I would sleep by 7 in the evening, get up by 1.30 am, and by 2 am, I would be ready on the make-up chair. It would take five hours for my make-up to be done. Finally, I'd start shooting at 7 in the morning. By the time they were done working on the film, the make-up artists were like zombies," she laughs.
Chopra says the film has been "emotionally, mentally, and physically" exhausting.
Based on Susanna's Seven, a story by writer Ruskin Bond, 7 Khoon Maaf is the story of a femme fatale who kills her seven husbands, and Chopra plays the protagonist.
