Recently, while preparing for the shoot of Umesh Shukla’s102 Not Out, makeup, hair and prosthetic designer Preetisheel Singh got busy working on the look of veteran actor Rishi Kapoor.
The much-awaited film has Kapoor playing a 75-year-old grumpy son to a 102-year-young cheerful Amitabh Bachchan. Its trailer and songs, including Badumbaa and Bachche Ki Jaan Loge Kya, are already a hit.
“Rishi Sir said he found the look seamless and flawless,” recalls Preetisheel. Saying that it looked extremely real, the veteran actor called her a “magician”. “A comment so flattering from a person of his talent and stature is something I will cherish for life,” quips the makeover wiz.
It’s been a roller coaster ride for Preetisheel this year. After garnering acclaim for her work in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat where she designed the looks for the complete cast along with Ranveer Singh, Shahid Kapoor and Deepika Padukone, she went on to win the Power Brands – Bollywood Film Journalists Award too.
Meanwhile, her film Nanak Shah Fakir, which bagged her the National Film Award for Best Makeup, has been re-released by Viacom18 Motion Pictures, albeit amidst controversy.
Next, the lady is looking forward to Vikramaditya Motwane’s Bhavesh Joshi Superhero starring Harshvardhan Kapoor and working on Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s look for the Abhijit Panse-directed movie Thackeray; the biopic on Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.
POINTERS: National Award-winning make-up, hair and prosthetic designer Preetisheel Singh
After Bajirao Mastani, Sanjay Leela Bhansali repeated Preetisheel Singh for Padmaavat. She designed the looks of all the main starcast including Ranveer Singh (as the evil ruler Alauddin Khilji), Deepika Padukone (as the legendary queen Padmavati) and Shahid Kapoor (as the Rajput ruler Ratan Singh). Viewers and film critics alike, have been awestruck with the results, with Preetisheel emerging the undisputed No.1 make-up, hair and prosthetic designer in the film industry.
Videos of look tests during the making of Padmaavat:
Preetisheel has created the look for Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s in Thackeray… the biopic being made on Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray. Its teaser was released some time ago by Uddhav Thackeray and Amitabh Bachchan and received widespread critical acclaim.
She has worked on Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s look earlier too in the movie Mom, where her make-up and prosthetic work was highly appreciated.
She has also done the make-up and prosthetic for actors in films like Shivaay, Haider, Hawaizaada, Housefull 3, Rangoon, Brothers, Talwar, Finding Fanny, Parched, Ghayal Once Again and the Tamil/Hindi film 24.
After Padmaavat, Preetisheel has also begun receiving a lot of offers down South. She has just accepted a Tamil film called Boomerang, where she is working on the looks for famous Tamil actor Ataharvaa Murali.
She received the ‘National Film Award for Best Makeup’ for the pre-Mughal historical epic Nanak Shah Fakir based on the life of Guru Nanak, wherein she designed the looks for all the characters in the movie. The film has recently re-released through Viacom18 Motion Pictures amid controversy.
Preetisheel’s work of creating believable ghost-figures for the recent horror film House Next Door has also been praised a lot. The film, which released in three languages (as House Next Door in Hindi, as Aval in Tamil and Gruham in Telugu) garnered critical acclaim and once again earned a lot of positive reviews for her work.
For the upcoming film 102 Not Out directed by Umesh Shukla, Preetisheel has designed the looks for Amitabh Bachchan as a 102-year-old man, as well as for Rishi Kapoor playing his 75-year-old son. Its trailer and songs, including Badumbaa and Bachche Ki Jaan Loge Kya are already a rage.
She is also working on Rishi Kapoor’s look of a devout Muslim in Anubhav Sinha’sMulk.
Apart from Mulk and Thackeray, her work as a make-up, hair and prosthetic designer will soon be showcased once again in upcoming movies such as Vikramaditya Motwane’s film Bhavesh Joshi Superhero starring Harshvardhan Kapoor. Its teaser has just released, revealing Harshvardhan’s look as a vigilante and it’s been the talk of the town.
After this, there is Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas, the debut film of Sunny Deol’s son Karan Deol.
Preetisheel has also set up India’s first make-up and prosthetic lab called Da Makeup Lab and her goal is to bring standards of make-up and prosthetic in India at par with Hollywood.
The South-Indian film industry is often considered to have more finesse than Bollywood. It is often said that many Southern movies are technically savvier than Bollywood flicks. Thus a lot of South directors and other technicians are sought after in the Hindi film industry, but not the other way round.
But that’s not the case National Award-winning makeup and prosthetic designer Preetisheel Singh is witnessing. Ever since her work received critical acclaim in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat, Preetisheel has been getting loads of offers to handle the looks of artistes from Southern industry.
Currently busy with handling the makeup and prosthetic for the Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer Thackeray (the film on the legendary Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray), the makeover wiz has accepted famous Tamil actor Ataharvaa Murali’s movie Boomerang in the South.
It can be noted here that Preetisheel’s work had garnered tremendous praise for another Tamil superhit 24 earlier. Her next Bollywood film to hit the screen would be the much-awaited Amitabh Bachchan-Rishi Kapoor starrer 102 Not Out directed by Umesh Shukla. Its promos and songs, including Badumbaa and Bachche Ki Jaan Loge Kya are already a rage.
Meanwhile, Nanak Shah Fakir which won Preetisheel a National Award (she designed the looks for all the characters in the movie) has re-released amid controversy.
And as if all this is not enough, the lady’s work will soon be seen in Vikramaditya Motwane’s Bhavesh Joshi Superhero starring Harshvardhan Kapoor. Its teaser has just released, revealing Harshvardhan’s look as a vigilante and it’s been the talk of the town. What more can Preetisheel ask for!
National Award-winning makeup, hair and prosthetic designer Preetisheel Singh won enormous critical acclaim when she designed the looks for Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat. But this doesn’t seem enough for her roller coaster ride to success.
The lady has quickly gone ahead and consolidated her position as the No.1 in her field of work with the Amitabh Bachchan–Rishi Kapoor starrer 102 Not Out directed by Umesh Shukla. The teaser of the film in which Big B and Rishi play father and son, has been creating quite a stir and the movie is expected to generate much more.
Speaking about the magnetic appeal of the legendary actors, Preetisheel says, “I was a baby when they were shining bright and they are still ruling hearts. So yes, you got to toughen up and think beyond the aura they exude. Designing their looks was a hard task. More so, as I was aware that combined with their talent, the looks would go way beyond visual appeal.”
“Plus, at their age and stature, it takes a lot of patience to sit and allow so much makeup to happen and then go out and perform. Even after all these years in the business of entertainment, their child-like enthusiasm and devotion to their art is awe-inspiring. Their energy and intensity is infectious and exhilarating, so much so that one can compare it with the current heartthrobs,” she adds.
Preetisheel’s repertoire includes projects such as Housefull 3, Mom, the Tamil film 24, Brothers, Rangoon,Parched, Shivaay, Talwar, House Next Door, Haider, Ghayal Once Again, Finding Fanny, Hawaizaada as well as the pre-Mughal historical epic Nanak Shah Fakir, for which she won the ‘National Film Award for Best Makeup’. And she has no plans of slowing down.
Her work will soon be showcased once again in upcoming movies such as Vikramaditya Motwane’s Bhavesh Joshi, Sunny Deol’s son Karan Deol’s debut film Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas, Rishi Kapoor-starrer Mulk and theNawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer Thackeray to name a few.
Got a video interview done for my PR client Preetisheel Singh on Chetna Vasishth’s ChetChat. Makeup, hair and prosthetic designer Preetisheel reveals a lot that goes behind the scenes in transforming actors into characters.
As Shah Rukh Khan’s Chennai Express rolls in this week, select cinema halls in the country will have audiences getting a taste of some delicious snacks from different Indian states.
If you are wondering how, we can let you in on a little secret. The exhibitor chain Rathi Group of Cinemas has tied up with the 60-year-old Kolkata-based company Mukharochak Foods to offer popular snack dishes like jhaal muri from Kolkata, kabuli chana chaat from Delhi and bhel from Mumbai at some of their theaters in their cinema hall chain.
Starting with Rohit Shetty’s Chennai Express starring SRK and Deepika Padukone with a special song dedicated to none other than Rajnikanth, the mouth-watering experience will extend to Milan Luthria’s Once Upon A Time in Mumbai Dobaara! (OUATIMD) starring Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan and Sonakshi Sinha; closely followed by Prakash Jha’s Satyagraha starring Amitabh Bachchan with Ajay Devgn and Kareena Kapoor.
OUATIMD producer Ekta Kapoor is kicked about the idea! “It’s a novel initiative in elevating the viewer’s movie-watching experience,” she quips.
Akshaye Rathi, the brain behind the association with the Kolkata-based company, sums it up saying, “Indians are passionate about films and food, so it can’t get better than offering the best of both worlds”. Indeed, with path-breaking marketing concepts such as these, Bollywood sure is on a fun romp.
‘Killing’ ageing superstars before their time comes, seems to be one of the in-things the internet and social media have come to specialize in! After fake rumours about Lata Mangeshkar and Rajesh Khanna’s demise this year, now the internet has gone ahead and ‘killed’ megastar Amitabh Bachchan this week.
ABOVE: A screen grab of the FAKE news report on 24musicvdo.blogspot.in
A Blogspot blog called 24musicvdo.blogspot.in reported Big B’s demise in a “car accident” on its home page a few hours ago; causing panic among Twitterati and Blackberry Messenger (BBM) users who broadcast and discussed it, till they realized it was a false alarm.
According to the said blog, “(Local Team News 9) Amitabh Bachan died in a single vehicle crash on Route 80 between Morristown and Roswell. He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics responding to the vehicle accident and was identified by photo ID found on his body. Alcohol and drugs do not appear to have been a factor in this accident – June 26, 2012.” (sic)
Also carrying photograph of a car turned over, the article added that “The Highway Safety Investigators have told reporters that Amitabh Bachan lost control while driving a friend’s vehicle on Interstate 80 and rolled the vehicle several times killing him instantly.” (sic)
“Memorial services for Amitabh Bachan have not yet been announced. The service is expected to be a closed casket funeral due to the severe head trauma,” (sic) it concluded after a further description of the so-called ‘accident’.
Commenting on such misleading reports, Bollywood PR specialist Dale Bhagwagar smirked, “The bol bachchan (talking big) attitude of the internet and social media often borders on irony when it keeps ‘killing’ superstars.”
“Social media is a very influential and powerful platform, and everyone should be wary of what they broadcast without verifying. When the rumour broke out, Mr Bachchan was happily tweeting almost every 15 minutes. It just takes a little bit of patience and research to check facts, but sadly, not many do that before they jump to conclusions and discussions on the net,” he analyzed.
According to the ninth edition of Ormax Media’s quarterly study Characters India Loves (CIL), Amitabh Bachchan (Kaun Banega Crorepati) and Ram Kapoor (Bade Achhe Lagte Hain) are the most favourite non-fiction and fiction characters on television respectively, reported Best Media Info.
This ninth track of CIL was conducted in October 2011, with a sample size of 3477 respondents in six cities – Mumbai,Delhi, Ahmedabad,Lucknow,Indoreand Jalandhar, in the 15-44 years age group, with Big B and Ram Kapoor emerging as the biggest superstars of Indian television.
Amitabh Bachchan leads the non-fiction popularity list with a staggering 57% share. A very successful season of his show Kaun Banega Crorepati (Sony) ended last week.
Ram Kapoor leads with 12% share in a more fragmented fiction category, ahead of past leaders like Anandi (Balika Vadhu) and Jethalal (Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashma), as well as Priya, his wife in Bade Achhe Lagte Hain.
According to monthly rankings of celebrities on ‘mobile social media’, Amitabh Bachchan, John Abraham and Neetu Chandra have featured among the top ten voice bloggers of the country.
“Voice blogging is not only a fantastic concept but a unique opportunity for actors to directly connect with their audiences. When I began, I had no idea it would be so much fun and such a huge success. Now sometimes, I even reveal little secrets about my life and career on my voice blog,” says an elated Neetu Chandra.
The other names in the top ten category include Sonu Nigam, Lara Dutta, R.Madhavan, Ravi Kishan and Harbhajan Singh. Closely following the top ten names, are celebrities like Priyanka Chopra (a new entrant to the concept), Emraan Hashmi and Riya Sen.
The results are based on Bubble Motion’s voice blogger rankings and showcase India’s most popular voice bloggers based on their number of followers across top of the line service providers like Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel.
To follow a voice blogger, fans dial a short code on their mobile phone and pay a monthly subscription fee. They are notified by SMS whenever a voice update is recorded by the bloggers they’re following.
