Why do Bollywood's biggest names not want to look like themselves?

Other than the fact that there's something endearing about Naseeruddin Shah, even when he plays, by his own admission, a lusty old goat, the thing that makes you click 'replay' on The Dirty Picture trailer link on YouTube, is actress Vidya Balan's makeover.

Balan is not your average glamorous heroine. She has a knack of getting her wardrobe, on screen and off it, wrong, and has had some trouble carrying off western outfits in the past.

That was until she discovered Kolkata's decadent designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee, who draped her in mulmul sarees and three-fourth sleeve retro blouses, coin-sized tikas and jhumkas to add, making her the quintessential classic Indian beauty.

Puts on kilos and pulls off clothes in Milan Luthria's The Dirty Picture, while a moustache-sporting Shahid Kapoor grows up in Mausam.


Vidya Balan
For the Milan Luthria-directed The Dirty Picture, an Ekta Kapoor production slated for a December 2 release, Balan was convinced to put on a few kilos and drop the handspun pallu in favour of nylon polka-dotted, front-knotted blouses that left little to the imagination.

Costume director Nikarika Khan's reference was the late South Indian sex siren Silk Smitha (on whose life the film is based) and a bevy of Chennai item girls.


Ranbir Kapoor
Plays Jordan in Rockstar
Highlights: Shoulder-length hair, drawn cheeks, stubble and head wrapped in a scarf. Grunge is the word

"Vidya has this image of being pure. For her to say, 'Do what you want to. I trust you, ' is unbelievable. There is a scene in the film where I have got her to slit open her blouse right down to her stomach, " says Khan, who played a key role in freezing Balan's look.


Shah Rukh Khan
Plays Don in Don 2
Highlights: Matted locks worn in a ponytail, stubble and moustache, 'D' tattoo on forearm

And there's something convincing about the actress, as she heaves her floral choli lined-bosom in Naseeruddin Shah's face to the beat of Ooh la la ooh la la, tu hai meri fantasy, while lemons rush down a hill behind her.

This isn't the story of Balan, and her conviction, alone. In a complete turnover of attitude, the Hindi film industry's most successful stars are edging away from safe territory while picking challenging roles that are not often pristine, transforming their appearance in a bid to get under their character's skin.


Shah Rukh Khan
Plays superhero G.One in RA.One
Highlights: Spiked hair, clean shaven-elastic make-up, rubber superhero suit

Everyone's favourite little boy Shahid Kapoor grows up in next week's release, Mausam, while playing Virendra Singh, an Air Force pilot, with a crisp moustache and a smart crew cut. Sanjay Dutt has run a razor over his head, shedding his blonde locks for a clean pate as Kancha Cheena, the villain in Karan Johar's remake of the 1990 film starring Amitabh Bachchan, Agneepath.

Recent trailers finally revealed Ranbir Kapoor's grungy, stubbled look as Jordan in Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar, while John Abraham took the six-pack trend to another level in Force, with producer Vipul Shah calling him "96 kilos of pure muscle".


Sanjay Dutt
Plays Kancha Cheena in Agneepath
Highlights: Bald head, silver piercing, tattooed arms

Kunal Kohli's untitled project starring Priyanka Chopra and Shahid Kapoor brings back the retro look rooted in the 1960s, and it is just one of the three looks in the film that's said to span three eras.

Both of superstar Shah Rukh Khan's forthcoming releases, Don 2 and RA.One, required that he look un-SRK like. While he grew his hair long to tie it into a dishevelled ponytail in Don 2, as RA.One's superhero G.One, he sports blue lenses to match his ink blue rubber suit.


Shilpa Shetty
Plays Gautami in The Desire
Highlights: Bald head, minimal make-up

And it's not just the wonders of make-up artists at work here. Some actors are taking the trouble to make it as real as it can get. After showing off six-pack abs in Murder 2, actor Emraan Hashmi packed in fatty foods and starch to grow a paunch for Dibakar Banerjee's Shanghai.

"I put on some weight to make it look authentic, " he says. Glamour doll Shilpa Shetty, who is as proud of her tousled mane as she is of her surfboard tummy, went through a four-hour prosthetic routine everyday for the climax of The Desire, a film produced by her mother Sunanda Shetty.

"Audiences have to see the effort. If they see the same old Shilpa Shetty in every film, they will be bored, " she admits with utmost candour.