Preetisheel Singh D’souza – A backgrounder

National Award-winning make-up, hair and prosthetic look designer Preetisheel Singh D’souza

After Bajirao Mastani, Sanjay Leela Bhansali repeated Preetisheel Singh D’souza 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, were awestruck with the results, with Preetisheel emerging the undisputed No.1 make-up, hair and prosthetic look designer in the film industry.

Now Sanjay Leela Bhansali has once again repeated Preetisheel for his upcoming film Gangubai Kathiawadi starring Alia Bhatt.

More recently, Preetisheel has also worked on Nitesh Tiwari’s Chhichhore where she designed multiple young and old-age looks for an ensemble lead cast. The film crossed the 200 crore mark at the box-office. Chhichhore has won the Best Hindi Film award at the 67th National Film Awards.

Her bald look of Akshay Kumar for Housefull 4 has also been a lot in the news and this film too crossed the 200 crore mark at the box-office. Akshay has also complimented her work a lot.

Her films, the Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer Bala and Kartik Aryan-starrer Pati Patni Aur Woh were big hits and her makeup and prosthetic work for both received acclaim.

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, Mom, Ghayal Once Again, Romeo Akbar Walter (RAW), Gone Kesh, Bhavesh Joshi Superhero, Bharat, Malaal, Tuesdays and Fridays, Panga, Ujda Chaman and the Tamil/Hindi film 24.

Preetisheel 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 re-released sometime ago through Viacom18 Motion Pictures amid controversy.

Her 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, Aval in Tamil and Gruham in Telugu) garnered critical acclaim and earned a lot of positive reviews for her work.

Preetisheel also received a lot of praise once again, for her work in the film 102 Not Out directed by Umesh Shukla. She designed the looks for Amitabh Bachchan as a 102-year-old man, as well as for Rishi Kapoor playing his 75-year-old son.

She also designed dual young and old looks for Madhuri Dixit as well as Ranbir Kapoor for advertisements which garnered a lot of traction. More recently, she has curated three avatars of Akshay Kumar for the Kurkure ad, where he has played the roles of son, father and grandfather.

She once again designed a unique grandfather look for Southern superstar Nagarjuna for a promo of Telugu Bigg Boss. Apart from this she designed a Frankenstein mask just for fun, which turned out to be a rage on social media.

Preetisheel also received abundant attention for working on Rishi Kapoor’s look of a devout Muslim in Anubhav Sinha’s Mulk as well as for Ayushmann Khurrana’s get-ups in Andhadhun.

After the successes of Padmaavat, 102 Not Out, Mulk and Andhadhun, she has also been receiving a lot of offers from South. She handled the make-up and prosthetic for the Tamil film Boomerang, where she has worked on the looks for famous Tamil actor Ataharvaa Murali. Her films Master and Bigil with Southern superstar Thalapathy Vijay have been blockbusters.

Preetisheel also curated the look for Nawazuddin Siddiqui for the film Thackeray; the biopic on Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray. The film received rave reviews and special praise for the way Nawazuddin resembled Balasaheb Thackeray.

Preetisheel’s work will next be showcased in upcoming movies like Yash Raj Films’ Bunty Aur Babli 2, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi, the Kangana Ranaut-starrer Dhaakad and Southern movies such as South style icon Allu Arjun’s starrer Pushpa and South superstar Vikram’s starrer Cobra.

She has also set up India’s first make-up and prosthetic lab called Da Makeup Lab at Versova, which has emerged a landmark. Her goal is to bring standards of make-up and prosthetic in India at par with Hollywood.

Preetisheel has recently been featured by international media among the top best 5 makeup and prosthetic designers in the world, along with Hollywood stalwarts such as Kazu Hiro, Christian Tinsley, Jordu Schell and Neill Gorton. What’s more! She is the only woman featured in this top 5 list of world famous makeup and prosthetic designers.

Some links which might interest you:

5 top best makeup and prosthetic designers in the world (featured on USA Newshour):

https://usanewshour.com/5-top-best-makeup-and-prosthetic-designers-in-the-world/2149/

Videos of look tests during the making of Padmaavat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtNgKLPM8G0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_YaXDDbOQQ

Video profile on The Quint:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goTLKKNHrDE

Video profile on ChetChat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohnjRxQbFFI&t=503s

Chhichhore — behind the scenes:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2gWk0XAR6H/?igshid=6tzhjso6w4rt