In Vishal Bharadwaj's upcoming release, 7 Khoon Maaf, actress Priyanka Chopra's character Suzanna, ages from 20 to 65. Make-up artists from Drag Studio, the firm that worked on Benjamin Button and Lord of the Rings, used her grandmother and mother's photographs as references to style her look

When you are in your 20s, expected to play a 65 year-old character, you need a vivid imagination, and some serious help from make-up artists.

Priyanka Chopra would know. In her forthcoming and much-awaited film, 7 Khoon Maaf, Chopra's character, Suzanna ages from 20 to 65. The National Award-winning actress admits it wasn't easy. "It has been the most challenging part any actor could play. Playing Suzanna was tough for someone like me, who is still in her 20s."

To prepare herself for the role, Chopra did the expected -- she asked director Vishal Bhardwaj's for help. "During most bits of shooting, I relied completely on Vishal sir, because I had no clue how I was going to take my character forward, " she says.

And proactive that she is known to be, the actress decided to approach her family for some assistance. "It was difficult to imagine myself as a 50 year-old woman. How does someone that old walk, talk? I decided to fashion my character on my mother, " she says, quickly adding with a laugh, "Not that she is a killer!"

Based on Susanna's Seven, a story by writer Ruskin Bond, 7 Khoon Maaf is the story of a femme fatale who bumps off her seven husbands. Chopra plays the protagonist.

Besides observing her mother's demeanour, the actress also allowed the film's team to fashion her looks on the way women in her family have aged. "When we did our research, we learnt that Indian women don't age that fast.

The make-up artists arrived from Drag Studio, the firm that worked on Benjamin Button and Lord of the Rings. The artists took snaps of my mom, bua, and my grandmom to see how women in my family have aged. And they designed my look accordingly."

Translating the family's aging process into prosthetics was not easy either. "We made the make-up artists' life hell since our call time would be 2 am! I would sleep by 7 in the evening, get up by 1.30 am, and by 2 am, I would be ready on the make-up chair. It would take five hours for my make-up to be done. Finally, I'd start shooting at 7 in the morning. By the time they were done working on the film, the make-up artists were like zombies, " she laughs.

Chopra says the film has been "emotionally, mentally, and physically" exhausting.

Priyanka has company
In Mother India, Nargis was only in her late twenties when she played the title role of an old woman. In 1969, Sharmila Tagore's image was anything but maternal when she sprang a surprise as Rajesh Khanna's mother in the second half of Aradhana.

More recently, Aishwarya Rai played Abhishek Bachchan's wife in Guru, ageing from a newly-wed bride to his faithful companion in old age.