Actor's Physical Transformation for a role - sort of

When the Tughlaq Makeup ladies Nitya Kansal and Jyoti Iyer asked me if I would be comfortable with getting my eyebrows reshaped into an older eyebrow style, I was quite excited. I play Tughlaq’s step-mom and we are going for a 14^th century look. This meant actually changing a portion of my physical appearance. My fellow actors have been growing/shaving/shaping their facial hair for months and I was excited at the opportunity to do something new with my appearance.

Now I must admit I know nothing about makeup and eyebrows (hence I trust my Makeup Goddesses Nitya and Jyoti). Like most Indian women, I get my eyebrows threaded every 3 – 4 weeks, but I just plop myself in the salon chair, close my eyes and let the beautician do her thing. When she’s done, I scramble to find my phone to check missed calls or texts. When she asks “Okay?” I briefly glance up from my phone, nod, say Thank You, pay up and zoom off.

This time, it was different. I showed up with these pics, asked for a particular senior beautician and waited half an hour until she was ready. I carefully explained the look that was needed, she nodded and proceeded to do her thing. After asking me to stretch my skin in various directions, she threaded, she called over her peers to get their expert opinion, more threading, she called over her mom-in-law to get an opinion from “that zamaana”, more threading, then she was done. I looked up and noticed….no difference. Huh? Where was the magical transformation? Where was the 14^th century look?

I met Nitya later that day and to my surprise, she said that I did look different. It was not exactly what she wanted but definitely less contemporary than before. She explained and re-explained using the Waheeda Rahman picture. Huh? By this point, the other (male) actors had gathered around the Waheeda Rahman picture and had started sighing longingly :)

Though my “physical transformation” was anti-climactic, I have learned that some things are left best up to the experts. If its good enough for the Tughlaq Makeup Goddess, its good enough for me. I'm sure it will be great for the audience - you can judge for yourself when you see the show!

Thoughts from Producer

The production of Tughlaq, including sets, costume and make-up was a challenge.

The sets were affected by the uniqueness of Tabard theatre. Tabard is setup like a baseball park, with the stage located at the home-plate. Our past plays such as Surya Ki Antim Kiran, and Final Solutions, performed at Cubberley in Mountain View, were on a proscenium stage, with the audience only in front of the stage. Tabard stage, on the other hand, faces the audience on three sides. That makes a set design more challenging for establishing the desired allusion. For example, while a column in Cubberly would be a facade with detailing only one side, Tabard required three sides finished. Moreover, Tabard is an intimate theatre lacking wing spaces, set/props holding areas etc. So we had to devise elaborate procedures to change sets between scenes without distraction. To illustrate, changing from a street scene to a palace scene required us to make two faced scenery-pieces which could be pivoted around

For costumes, Snigdha researched the historical books and websites to come up with unique costumes for actors. She, then, got them made in India and brought over for the play. For make-up, Nitya went through several iterations with Manish and others to come up with facial details including beards and mustaches. Some actors preferred to grow their own facial hair for the play. Others in production have similar stories to tell.

All in all, it has been a challenging and very enjoyable journey for all of us in Production.

Pradeep