Bollywood's dusky beauty Deepika Padukone's complexion has been lightened by three shades to suit her Chinese look in the film "Chandni Chowk To China", says stylist Mallika Bhat.
"Deepika has a dusky skin tone. In 'Chandni Chowk To China', she plays two different roles - one with a Chinese look and the other with an Indian look. We worked on her complexion for both the looks," Bhat told IANS over phone from Mumbai.
"For the Chinese look we gave her a three shades lighter complexion than her original. Then we gave it a yellowish tinge that is typical with Chinese people and teamed it with sharp and prominent make-up.
"For the Indian look, we gave her a shade darker in terms of complexion, used her normal hair and gave slightly over-the-top make-up but nothing extraordinary," she added.
Bhat, who is responsible for Deepika's Chinese eyes and poker-straight fringed hair in the film, says working on the actress' look was difficult, as she does not fit the bill of a Chinese girl easily.
"It was a very challenging task. Director Nikhil Advani had briefed me very specifically about the look that he wanted Deepika to flaunt in the film. But Deepika was not an easy girl for it.
"She has a dusky complexion, large, almond-shaped eyes and long eyelashes that are totally opposite to what Chinese women look like. So I had to kind of work against nature to get the right look for her," explained Bhat.
A lot of research went behind Deepika's Chinese look in the film.
Most often in Bollywood, stylists settle for cosmetic tapes at the end of each eye to give the Chinese look to actors, but Bhat says it wasn't a feasible option because Deepika's doctors had advised her against their use.
"Cosmetic tapes would have been very painful for Deepika. She would have to keep them on for the 10-12 hours of shooting. It is one of the easiest ways to get that Chinese look, but it was not feasible and totally out of question to expect Deepika to wear it for 60-70 days of shooting," said Bhat.
To overcome this, Bhat created the look using eyeliner.
"I gave her a slightly slanted and curvy eyeliner to make her eyes look narrow. We gave her light shade contact lenses besides working upon her eyelashes also."
To enhance the look, Deepika was made to wear a specially cut wig with "poker straight and rebonded hair".
"Indians have thick hair, but in China they have fine hair; so that aspect also had to be kept in mind. I got the wig cut by celebrity hair stylist Ryan D'Rozario," said Bhat.
The 23-year-old actress also sports long fringes as a result of the stylist's research on Chinese women. She revealed that nearly 80 percent of youth there flaunted fringes or horizontal bangs. "It gives the person a very Oriental look," she said.
According to Bhat, it took her just four hours to decide upon Deepika's final look along with her team. After that, it took her team just half an hour to do up the Chinese look every time it was required.
Though Bhat says she isn't confident that she has got the look "bang on", she admits to having "managed to make Deepika look at least half-Chinese".
Releasing Jan 16, "Chandni Chowk To China" also stars superstar Akshay Kumar in the lead. The action-adventure-comedy is about an Indian cook who goes to China and has many adventures. Deepika plays Akshay's love interest in the film.