Making Priyanka Chopra's scars in Mary Kom look real was a challenge, says glamour make-up artist Subhash Shinde

Have you noticed how impressively real the scars on Priyanka Chopra's body look in Mary Kom? If the dripping blood, wound marks and other scars on Priyanka Chopra will make you gasp in pain, you have one man to thank for making it look real - glamour make-up artist, Subhash Shinde, the architect behind the scars and Priyanka's much talked bald look. When Sanjay Leela Bhansali signed on Priyanka Chopra to essay the role of champion boxer Mary Kom, the first major challenge that lay before him was to hire someone who could prosthetically make the actress look really injured like boxer Mary Kom while battling opponents in the ring in the film. And that is when Sanjay's office turned to trusted celebrity and glamour make-up man Subhash Shinde who had earlier worked with Sanjay on Ram-Leela. Though Subhash has years of experience under his belt, prosthetic make-up proved to be an arduous task for him as he specialises in glamour make-up. But with Sanjay Leela Bhansali and team having reposed faith in Subhash, the make-up artist rose to the task to make Priyanka prosthetically look like Mary Kom. And the end result has surely pleased one and all. Says Subhash, "It was a challenge for me because this was the first time I was doing prosthetic make-up. I am used to doing glamour make-up on stars but prosthetics presented an altogether new challenge." Talking about the specific prosthetic make-up he has done for Priyanka in the movie, Subhash says, " I had to take care of designing injury marks on her body and make them look real. I used special prosthetics to show injuries on her body. The challenge here was to make two different injury marks. One which shows a freshly cut wound with blood dripping and another one showing a dried up wound and resulting scar. So to create two different prosthetic marks was a challenging task." While Subhash admits to not having done prosthetic make-up before Mary Kom, he never had any self-doubts on whether he would be able to carry out the task assigned. "I had only 25 days in hand to prepare and I practised on my friends. In fact, many of them were initially reluctant to be my object of practise because normally everyone likes to be a part of glamour make-up unlike prosthetics. But luckily, I found a few good friends who volunteered and helped in getting enough practise before I started my work on Priyanka." Subhash who has also taken care of other actors make-up in the movie singles out Priyanka for some high praise. "I have worked with a lot many actors but none like Priyanka. She makes you feel at ease and home. I remember how patiently she sat through while I was doing her bald look. It took 2 hours and Priyanka sat there for the entire duration without throwing a single tantrum." What made Subhash's task difficult was the tough fight sequences of Priyanka which often used to result in the prosthetics falling off. "I had to re-apply them many times," reveals Subhash before singing off. Mary Kom will open in theaters across India on 5 September.