Actors who went bald for a role

 

It's not always easy to be true to a role specially if it requires a drastic physical change. And yet, actors in India and Hollywood, have undertaken bold physical transformations to be true to a character. While Shilpa Shetty managed with prosthetics when she had to shave her head off for a Buddhist monk's role in the Indo-Chinese film The Desire (apparently on the insistence of the shampoo brand that she endorses), Antara Mali went all the way and shaved off her head for her monk's role in Amol Palekar's And Once Again. It's another matter that Antara's dedication has not been witnessed by anyone as yet as the film lies in the cans.

Actors who went bald for a role

 

So is it worth an actor's efforts to go all-out for a role? Here are ten actors who have gone bald (or nearly bald) for a part.

 

1.  Aamir Khan in Ghajini: The striped head-shave which made Aamir look like an Irish punk was so cool, it was scary. Aamir went around without most of his hair for a good 7-8 months to look the part of the memory-challenged beefed-up avenger who has nothing to lose in life except his life. The tonsured head was Aamir's idea. When he was signed for the role, no one expected him to go so closely by the script, even if he was THE Aamir Khan.

 

2.  Salman Khan in Tere Naam: This guy never acts. He just stands in front of the camera and is his natural self. Audiences love him for that. Physical transformations, beards, wigs, etc… are a complete no-no for Salman. The one exception was Satish Kaushik's Tere Naam, where Salman agreed to tonsure his head to look convincing as a tortured inmate in a mental asylum. Surprisingly, the director didn't have to persuade Salman much. He readily agreed to go from his weirdly wigged look in the first-half, to the stark hairless look in the second-half.

 

3.  Arjun Rampal in Ra.One: To play the villain, you gotta' sacrifice your vanity. Considered quite a prominent pinup boy in Bollywood, Arjun shaved off his hair and hid his hair-less head under caps for as long as he shot for this hideous super-hero film. The biggest super-hero was Arjun Rampal who sacrificed his hair for role that lasted 15 minutes.

 

4.  Lisa Ray, Seema Biswas in Water: Deepa Mehta's film has an interesting history. It was meant to be Nandita Das and Shabana Azmi playing widows on the ghats of Varanasi. But when Hindu radicals protested and shut down the film, the cast changed to Lisa Ray and Seema Biswas in the two key roles. However, all four actresses shaved off their heads to play their roles. Dedication of this sort is exemplary in Bollywood. Tabu and Manisha Koirala had refused to shave off their heads for Water.

 

5.  Shahid Kapoor in Haider: Finally, he didn't completely shave off his head, as planned. But director Vishal Bhardwaj has got the chocolate hero Shahid Kapoor to actually sport a close-cropped look for his Kashmiri character's role. Shahid is the first leading man of his generation to shed his hair for a role. Being Pankaj Kapoor's son helps you to shed your hero's vanity.

 

6.  Sanjay Dutt in Agneepath: When Sanjay Dutt agreed to play the villain Kancha in Karan Malhotra's remake of the Bachchan classic Agneepath, they were very sure they wanted Dutt's Kancha to be very different much more intimidating than Danny Denzongpa in the original. Dutt's Kancha was written as a grotesque comic book figure. The actor gladly agreed to shave off his head for a very Frankenstein kind of diabolic look. The end-result was scary!

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