It’s pretty easy for cinephiles to be critical of an actor for his/her role in a movie but, in reality, a lot goes behind the curtain. Actors put in a lot of effort to prepare for a role and do justice to the character. However, sometimes they have to push the envelope to get into the skin of the character. In fact, some Bollywood celebs have, unarguably, done a mindblowing job at this. From undergoing massive physical transformation to hurting their mental health, they gave up a lot just to be the right match for a role.
Read on to find out who these celebs are.
10 Times Bollywood Actors Went To Extreme Levels To Fit In A Role
Here are 10 Bollywood actors who took method acting quite seriously:
Ayushmann Khurrana – Andhadhun
To fit in the role of the award-winning character, Ayushmann went to blind schools for several days and recorded the daily routine and ways of working of visually challenged people. He then spent hours every day practising how to replicate the same for his character, Akash. He even used to read scripts with blindfolds to stay in character.
Alia Bhatt – Udta Punjab
Alia played the role of a migrant labourer in the film. To make her character look authentic, the actress didn’t wash her hair for twenty days. She looked almost unrecognizable in the film, didn’t she?
Shahid Kapoor – Kabir Singh
Shahid had to sport two looks in Kabir Singh–one of a young college student, and another of an alcoholic surgeon. For the first one, he had to lose 14 kgs whereas, for the second look, he had to gain 8 kgs to look bloated. Shahid, who is a non-smoker otherwise, had to smoke 20 cigarettes and bidis a day to get in the skin of Kabir Singh. He would take two hours every day to freshen up before returning home to his family.
Ranveer Singh – Padmaavat
Ranveer Singh had to go to negative extremes to get into the character of Alauddin Khilji. The actor would lock himself in his apartment for days. Mimicking the dark and intimidating mindset of Khilji also affected the actor’s reactions and behaviour towards the people in his real life. In fact, Ranveer had to take psychiatric help in order to come out of the character later.
Rajkummar Rao – Trapped
Trapped was a film about a young man getting trapped in his own house in a high-rise building. To ace the character, Rajkummar ate nothing but carrots and drank coffee for 20 days. The actor revealed how he would feel angry and frustrated on some days out of hunger and fatigue. Because he was starving himself, he even had blackouts a few times.
Aamir Khan – Dangal
For Dangal, Aamir had two completely opposite looks to nail. Bollywood’s Mr Perfectionist had to gain 20 kgs for the character of Mahabir Singh Phogat as a father and went through strenuous workout sessions for his role as the young wrestler. At an event during the movie’s shoot, Aamir was even seen limping. On being asked, he replied that the role required him to work on his lower body. That is why he had been doing heavy leg workouts.
Randeep Hooda – Sarbjit
Randeep had to go through a massive physical transformation for his role in and as Sarbjit. To lose drastic weight, the actor went on a zero-calorie diet and completely cut-off sugar. The process was so gruelling that he would think about food all the time. Some days he would feel so hungry that he couldn’t even sleep. Then came a point when he was only allowed to eat an apple a day! He started to sketch his favourite foods to compensate for not being able to eat them.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas – Mary Kom
PeeCee underwent three months of rigorous drilling to get into shape for the role of Mary Kom. She would train for five hours every day, which included lifting weights, doing circuit training and crossfit. Apart from this, she trained under a boxing coach to perfectly replicate the world boxing champion’s moves.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui – Raman Raghav 2.0
Nawazuddin confessed that he “started fearing himself” while preparing for the role of Raman, the psycho serial killer in Raman Raghav 2.0. He even left his home for two days straight without informing anybody. Once, he fell unconscious during the shooting of the film and started repeating his lines from the script.
Vivek Oberoi – Company
Vivek Oberoi debuted in Bollywood with Ram Gopal Verma’s Company and didn’t leave any stone unturned to fit in the character of Chandu. He spent 15 days in the slums, sleeping on the floor and using public toilets, to get into the role. The day he was to meet the director for auditions, he applied mud on his face from a plant and walked into RGV’s office with a beedi in his mouth. He sat on the chair, kept his feet on the desk and said, “Aye, yeh thobra kya dekh raha hai?” This totally convinced RGV that Vivek was the one for the role.
And you thought being an actor was a piece of cake!
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