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Lights, Camera, Scoop: Vikrant Massey's '80 Per Cent Vision Loss' for 'Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan' and Saif Ali Khan Teaming Up With 'Maalik' Director
The Hollywood Reporter India's weekly column 'Lights, Camera, Scoop' will unravel the behind-the-scenes madness of the big Bollywood machinery.
The two upcoming big screen releases on July 11, Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan and Maalik, kicked off their promotional campaigns simultaneously, unveiling their trailers earlier this week. The interviews of the cast members — Vikrant Massey and Shanaya Kapoor headlining the romantic drama, and Rajkummar Rao leading the actioner — soon started popping up across all entertainment portals.
Despite differing genres, both films share a common thread in the intense preparation of all the lead actors. Massey and Rao, known for their commitment to their craft, fully immersed themselves in their characters. For Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan, in which Massey plays a visually impaired musician, the actor acted with "80 per cent vision loss" to get the character right.
During their research, director Santosh Singh detailed how the team landed on lenses that could hamper Massey's vision by at least 80 per cent, helping him in playing the part.
"That was the only way to get it right, and it was born out of several of our discussions. Our research then led to these lenses, which one has to make from scratch. A person wearing it can only see an outline of things; Vikrant would wear it for as much as 12 hours while we were shooting! He would take it out only during the lunch breaks," Singh shared with THR India.
Kapoor also wasn't behind in prepping vehemently for her debut, in which she is seen blindfolded. She began doing this during the initial workshops itself, Singh said. "The body goes into defensive mode when you are blindfolded, so she needed to do her workshops like that, which went on for months. We stopped the workshops just a week before the shoot, and I told her she could now just take it all in," Singh added.
Maalik director Pulkit equally raves about Rajkummar Rao, with whom he reunites after the duo's Hansal Mehta-backed Bose Dead/Alive. The ALT Balaji title was when Pulkit says he discovered the lengths to which Rao could go for the character, including shaving his head instead of opting for a wig.
This was Rao during his peak Bareilly Ki Barfi phase and wherever the duo went, Pulkit says Rao would simply put on a cap and hide his "half-bald" look. For Maalik, Rao understood the assignment of playing a ruthless gangster in 80s' Allahabad and was game for whatever Pulkit had to offer, including the chilling scene of him hanging four men to death (more on this later).
But Maalik is not the only film the director is looking forward to this year, as his other project Kartavya will hopefully hit a streaming service soon. Saif Ali Khan headlines Kartavya, which is set in the heartland of the Haryana-UP border. The shooting is complete, and Pulkit told THR India that Khan will "surprise" the audience with his character in the film, billed as a cop-drama.