Great Bhet presents “Vikram Gaikwad: Vital Make-up Designer of the Indian films”, only on IBN-Lokmat

When people see a Bollywood artist with a groovy hairdo or a funky appearance, they copy him and try to look the same. Not only do they find it uniquely appealing, they also consider it the latest fashion trend. But people seldom know about the person behind the whole avatar of these actors. Meet Vikram Gaikwad, a make-up designer who has worked towards creating unique facades for actors in various films such as Sardar, Making of Gandhi, Maqbool, Rang De Basanti and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar on Great Bhet, Saturday, 19th November 2011 at 9:30 pm only on IBN-Lokmat.

Vikram Gaikwad’s career as a make-up designer, started as a hobby when he was just eight years old. He is known for his fine prosthetics and subtle make up style. His specialty in period films and historic characters has created wonders. In the 22 years of his life that he has spent in the Indian film industry the extremely low-profile Gaikwad has crafted characters like Bhagat Singh and Babasaheb Ambedkar. One of his best works include an ad where he made a human being look like a chimpanzee in the international marriage portal, marriage.com when the portal could not find a chimpanzee to feature in their ad. The brilliance of his work was proved after the ad was aired and an animal rights organization approached the crew questioning the company on the use of the animal. According to Gaikwad, the reason behind the success of the ad was the belief that every human face resembles some animal. He believes that every skin tone represents the soil the person belongs to. He also possesses a collection of different soils that he collected from various parts in India. To give his actors a ravishing look he mixes these soils and uses it as a natural foundation base to create skin tones of various Indian origins.

The only formal training Vikram Gaikwad undertook at the early days of his career was a workshop from a special effects institute in New York. The institute’s officials became familiar with his intellect and gave him 15 days of training to polish his technical skills. Rick Baker, the renowned make-up artist of the movie, The Nutty Professor, was one of the people he trained under this workshop. He used actor Mammootty who played the role of Ambedkar for the English film Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar as his model for the final test and received an A+ grade. Gaikwad has also practiced for four years at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune under Anji Babu, a lecturer-cum-make-up artist. He has worked in over 50 films, 500 ads and innumerable theatre productions. His works in some of the recent Indian films include Dirty Picture and Omkara. Gaikwad believes that Indians should appreciate the Make-up industry and believe in the magic it can create.

To know more this artist’s views on the Indian Make-up industry and his astounding work in the field of Indian Film and Advertising Industry, watch Great Bhet on Saturday, 19th November at 9:30 pm only on IBN-Lokmat.

You can also watch a repeat of this episode on Sunday, 20th November 2011 at 12 pm and 5:30 pm only on IBN-Lokmat.