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MUMBAI: Renowned television actor and renowned entertainment fame Shaheer Sheikh has garnered immense love and appreciation from his fans and the audience at large not only for his manly charms and good looks but also for his fine on-screen acting-chops.
The actor had embarked upon his showbiz journey as a child artiste by debuting on the small-screen with Disney Channel India's Hindi teen show Kya Mast Hai Life and became a budding sensation amongst the Indian teen, especially girls.
Later, after being a part of a few other TV shows, it was in the year 2013 that Shaheer bagged his fortune's breakthrough opportunity with Swastik Productions' Mahabharat, which aired on Star Plus. Herein, he played the main lead role of Pandav-Putra Arjuna, who was the demi-son of Lord Indra and the third of the 5 Pandav brothers. His performance was highly lauded throughout the country, which made him instant household fame in no time. Not only in India, his on-screen character of Arjun even rocked the entire Indonesia, such that local adaptations and spin-offs that featured him were aired therein.
After doing many other Indonesian shows and the popular Hindi drama Kuch Rang Pyar Ke Aise Bhi (co-starring Erica Fernandes and Supriya Pilgaonkar), it was in 2018 when he bagged his second Hindi period-drama show - Colors TV's Dastaan-E-Mohabbat: Salim Anarkali, wherein he played the lead role of Prince Salim, opposite to actress Sonarika Bhadoria who played Anarkali's role.
Both of these shows helped in levitating Shaheer's position in the industry as a refined actor, despite Dastaan-E-Mohabbat.... not being a magnum opus like Mahabharat.
Keeping the stats aside, it was really intriguing for the audience to get visually treated by Shaheer's historic looks of different styles in both these shows. In Mahabharat, he was donning the typical royal and a commoner Indian's looks from the Iron (Vedic) Age. He was seen experimenting with a wide variety of royal and common ensembles while portraying Arjun's role as despite being a prince, the 5 Pandavas were often exiled off by their Kaurav cousins, for which they had to slip into various disguises while staying in the woods.
Again his getup undergoes radical changes on a functional-basis - showing-off his royalty while attending court, family or clan events, donning a hermit's look along with his other brothers on being banished from his kingdom; to wearing an armour and the associated metal accessories before heading for the war of Kurukshetra. In all the cases, he is constantly seen wearing a dhoti with all of his male co-stars in the show.
Check out his ICONIC stills from the show below:
1. Gurukul trainee-look
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Herein, Shaheer is seen in a dhoti while covering his upper bare body with an embroidered purple uttariya (a muslin/ silk cloth that's draped across the body like a sash). This ensemble with minimum ornaments establishes his 'Kshatriya look' from a royal background, who was undergoing preliminary training at their Gurukul.
2. The crowned-prince look
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Draped in an all-white ensemble of gold-embroidered dhoti and uttariya with distinctive golden ornaments around the waist, wrists, neck and shoulder-pieces and that magnificent crown, Shaheer looks like an actual royal prince herein.
3. The hermit look
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As per Indian mythologies, once a prince/ king was banished from their kingdom, he had to completely sacrifice his wealth and riches as they were supposed to live the life of a hermit. Hence, they had to dress up similarly as well in a totally vermillion ensemble, rudraksh accessories replacing the ones made of royal metal and a bag called 'jhola' to collect local food that was either gathered from the woods or received from other common servers. The fabric of these garments had to mandatorily be cotton.
4. The warrior look
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Just like any other warrior prince, Shaheer's Arjun had to also endorse detailed and heavy-motif embossed metal armours to cover and protect his bare body from external assaults in the battleground. Every kingdom of different regions and culture represented their own significant symbols and motifs on their armour, that were distinctly used as clan-identification signs.
5. Brihannala - Arjun in a woman's disguise-look
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With curses and boons being a significant part of Hindu mythological stories, Arjun's saga behind transforming into a lady named Brihannala was also similar. Going by the tale, Arjuna was cursed by apsara (angel) Urvashi that he would turn into a girl (specifically a eunuch) forever, who would spend the rest of his lives amongst ladies. Later, by being solicited by Lord Indra himself, Urvashi reduced her curse's span on him till just a year instead. Hence, for a whole year, Arjun was transformed into a eunuch and he dressed up just like an apsara himself, endorsing sarees/ lehengas and women's jewelleries like bangles, earrings, maang-tika, beaded braid-chain and others. Most importantly, as seen in this picture, he had to cover his head with a bridal veil, just like other women.
This was definitely Shaheer's boldest on-screen presence so far, which needed a special mention.
7. The sage look
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Brahmins and sages were, are and would be integral members of the Hindu society. However herein, Arjun and his brothers had to camouflage as hermits during most of their exile periods to dodge their enemy's attacks and to procure the minimal benefits of quality life.
Moving on to his looks in the historic Mughal drama-based Hindi show - Dastaan-E-Mohabbat: Salim Anarkali, Shaheer had to dress up accordingly for portraying the Mughal prince Salim's role. Unlike Mahabharat, this is not based on mythology hence the scopes of experimenting with his looks were historically limited.
Shaheer's two most-iconic looks of his character from this show are:
1. The crowned Prince Salim- look
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Going by the name, Shaheer's seen endorsing a top-to-bottom royal ensemble of the Mughal-style dhoti bottoms (like harron pants) and a royal velvet coat on top, that's embellished with heavy metallic embroideries and motifs that represent Mughal art. Tying a beaded belt was a must to fasten the ensemble along the waist and different jewelleries mostly of pearl and gold were endorsed, in which flaunting rings made of valuable gems were a big mandate as a sign of royalty. Talking about Prince Salim in specific, his entire ensemble would look incomplete without spotting him holding a rose.
2. The Mughal warrior look
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Mughal warriors (including both chivalry and cavalry forces) had to appear on the battlefield completely armoured. As a warrior prince, Shaheer was spotted covered in metal (mostly of bronze) armour, extending from the neck to the lower part of his upper body, while his arms and feet were also covered with a fabric made of a meshwork of metal rings and danglers. Heavy armours covered the entire bare body with fabrics made of metal chains and mesh were used to cover the arms and feet completely. Heavy-duty leather footwear that looked like boots were worn during battles. The wartime headgears were like sleek metal helmets with metal mesh danglers coving the neck and shoulders from behind to counter death-blows with sharp weapons.
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Source: Internet
