For some actors, just looking the part isn’t enough. Replicating emotions, mannerisms and getting into the groove of the character with method acting is something that stars do to add a hint of realism and to go the extra mile.
We’ve heard how Christian Bale ate only apples to drop 60 lbs to slip into a bag of bones to play a chronic insomniac in The Machinist or how Adrian Brody apparently sold everything and lived like a pauper to get into character for The Pianist. Shia LaBeouf’s latest confession of dropping acid for The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman or his insistence of looking up to people like Sean Penn who is known to have strapped himself to an electric chair in Dead Man Walking are only a few cases in point. Actors are now taking method acting seriously and Bollywood isn’t too far behind on this trend.
While six pack abs were all the rage from Shah Rukh Khan to Shivarajkumar, the recent buzz is now about putting on mass. Lots of it — Aamir Khan not just trained to be a wrestler and learnt Haryanvi, but went from a healthy 68 to 95 kilos for Dangal, Salman Khan went from 87 to 94 kilos for Sultan. Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known to be a hard taskmaster on the sets, the product of which is outstanding performances – whether it was the then nine-year-old Ayesha Kapur in Black or the 41-year-old Hrithik Roshan for his role in Guzaarish as a paraplegic magician – his newest protégé is Ranveer Singh who we hear, not just shaved his head and underwent strenuous physical and accent training, but apparently even isolated himself for a whole week in his Juhu Hotel only communicating with people through chits for his role in Bajirao Mastani!
“It’s becoming popular by the day,” notes Saurabh Pathak, an actor and acting instructor at Roshan Taneja’s School of Acting. “It’s not just about being labelled as talented. It’s now important to also be a good observer, have a potent imagination and a thirst to learn more about your own capabilities — like Ranbir Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, for instance,” says the teacher who often uses examples of these men in his classes. “At the end of the day, they aren’t just good looking and popular, they are also methodical to the tee,” he says.
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