Saif Ali Khan’s look from Laal Kaptaan — dreadlocks, scruffy beard, with ashes smeared on his face and body and the red tikka have been in the news ever since the trailer was out. Darshan Yewalekar, who has designed the hair and beard for Saif, shares that it was after several look tests that they got the final one. “It was a challenge from day one. I had designed Ranveer Singh’s hair in Padmaavat and the movie was out when I was approached for Laal Kaptaan. I found it exciting to design Saif’s look as a naga sadhu,” he says, adding that director Navdeep Singh gave him a proper brief and vision of what he wanted.
“After the first narration, when I went to meet him, Navdeep gave me 46 folders with a lot of details in it. He was so well-prepared. He was sure of what he wanted and I incorporated his vision,” says Darshan, who then briefed Saif to grow his hair and beard. “I prefer using real hair before molding it. I then add or subtract so that it blends in naturally. Saif was so patient with me. For the look test, it would take 30 minutes because we were not just pasting it, but arranging and aligning the hair and beard,” he explains.
Saif Ali Khan’s look from Laal Kaptaan (left); Johnny Depp’s in the Pirates of the Caribbean
However, comparisons have been drawn with Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow look from the Pirates of the Caribbean. Ask him whether he had thought about it while designing the look, and Darshan says, “No, we hadn’t thought about it at all. The only vision was to create a naga sadhu. I went to Varanasi where a few of my friends had rare pictures of them. When you say naga sadhu, the first thing that comes to your mind is the bhabhuti — the white powder, dreadlocks, scruffy beard and red tikka.
There were a few places where he had to wear a bandana and on the set, we felt it may be close to Johnny Depp’s look. It’s a mere coincidence that the look is similar. But in today’s age even if I design something authentic, it will be found replicated with Hollywood or French cinema. Maybe Depp picked it up from naga sadhu because it goes well with his character brief — pirates also sport long hair and don’t shave! Honestly, when you see Laal Kaptaan, you’ll see he is a naga sadhu. Only because he has dreadlocks is he being compared to the Pirates of the Caribbean star,” says Darshan, who has designed the hair and beard for the entire cast of the film.
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