‘Bell Bottom’ director says casting Lara as Indira Gandhi was Akshay Kumar’s idea

As soon as the trailer of the Akshay Kumar-starrer ‘Bell Bottom’ was out, the transformation of Lara Dutta as Indira Gandhi has become a talking point.

In an interview, the movie’s director Ranjit M. Tewari shared why, despite Lara’s facial features not being similar to those of the late former prime minister of India, she was selected for the role. The transformation, he said, was a reflection of the improvement the science of prosthetics had made over the years.

“This was one of the important casting decisions for my film,” Tewari said. “If we look at Lara in real life, she carries herself with a lot of dignity and has a very strong personality. Initially, the idea of casting Lara came from Akshay sir, so the credit goes to him. Then I was wondering how to make her look like Mrs. Gandhi. She does not look like her in any way.

“I had two options: either we make Lara look exactly like Mrs. Gandhi, or create a similar look, keeping the essence of the ‘Mrs. Gandhi look’. Then I sat with (the makeup artist) Vikram Gaikwad and after numerous discussions and Photoshop sessions, finally, we went for prosthetics.

“For the first time, when she had 70% of her prosthetics on, I saw Lara in her Mrs. Gandhi look. I was like, ‘That’s it! We found the look!’ I am very happy that the effort that has gone into her look has been appreciated. Lara, on her part, added so much dignity to the character with her performance.”

‘Bell Bottom’, inspired by a real-life hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight in 1984, also features Vaani Kapoor, Huma Qureshi, and Adil Hussain in vital roles. The film is slated for a theatrical release on 19th August.