Digitally de-aged

They may be well past their prime, but actors —Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Venkatesh, Ravi Teja, Nagarjuna, Vijayashanthi and Rajasekhar — still continue to wow the audiences with their dashing looks. Thanks to the entertainment industry’s glamour miracle — a technique so effective that nearly every actor has started using it.

If Chiranjeevi had an absolutely flat tummy in his recent film Sye Raa, much to the wonder and delight of his fans, Balakrishna has not been left behind in his latest movie Ruler.  

Digital de-aging — the act of making an actor look decades younger on screen by digitally smoothing out wrinkles and tightening jaw lines — is all the rage right now.

Interestingly, it’s not just the senior actors, almost every actor and filmmaker is using this technology to look good onscreen. And one really can’t blame them either, given that their profession and longevity depends on it.

Actress Anushka Shetty may still be struggling to get thin in real life, but looks lean in her upcoming film Nishabdam, with not an ounce of fat on her face!

Actor Prabhas in Saaho appeared beefed up in some scenes but lean in others.  This technology is even being used to make some only shine brighter on screen like Ram Charan, Allu Arjun, Mahesh Babu, Prabhas and Raj Tarun. Not just that, you would not be blamed for not finding a single wrinkle on any senior actor’s face as they are all miraculously wiped clean with digital make-up.

Incredibly expensive
However, the price of looking good is quite high! While it can cost nearly `3 lakh per minute for a top actor, the use of the technology for a smaller actor can range from anywhere between `1 lakh to `1.5 lakh! Also, when actors are giving in to their vanity, can actresses be left behind? They too are using the new technology to improve their onscreen looks. In fact, a source informs that senior actress Vijayashanthi is using the de-aging technology in her comeback film, Sarileru Neekevvaru. “Although many actors follow a strict diet and exercise regimen to bulk up and also become lean, they still need this technology to enhance their looks,” says a producer on the condition of anonymity. Meanwhile, Srikanth, a computer graphics analyst who works for Mayukha, confirms, “There is a technology by which we can enhance every actor’s looks on screen and do some kind of make-up on them.”