Entertainment business comes as a very easy money earning source for people who enter the cinemas, enjoy the films and come back to home judging the actors and makers. Little do they know, how much efforts and risks the profession involve before the actors accept the heavy pay cheques for their role.
While it is all fun and entertainment for us, these actors do a lot to get into the skin of their character. In the process, sometimes they end up affecting their mental and physical health too.
Here we list down the actors who went way too far in method acting to make their characters real and believable and in return, they took the consequences.
1. Randeep Hooda (Sarabjit)
Randeep Hooda literally tortured himself to play the character of Sarabjeet in his biopic. We all saw his transformation as he lost 18 kgs weight in 28 days but we don’t know painful it was for Randeep. He accepted during an interview with Mumbai Mirror-
“I was a muscular 94 kg at the time and while it’s easy to burn fat, it’s hard to lose muscle. I was expecting to shoot the portions when Sarabjit was a pahalwan in his village and then slowly shed weight. The decision came as a shock and led to a period of physical and mental torture.”
2. Ranveer Singh (Padmavati)
Ranveer Singh always put extra efforts to play the character he is given. During Bajirao Mastani he opted for method acting and in Padmavati too he locked himself into a room and went completed isolated to understand the mannerisms and nuances of the character of Alauddin Khilji.
We’ve just seen a glimpse of him in Padmavati trailer and it bowled us away. We wonder how will it be when the film actually releases.
3. Aamir Khan (Dangal)
Aamir Khan is one Bollywood superstar who does everything needful to achieve perfection in his character. In the meantime, he doesn’t care about even his health.
For Dangal, he had to play a young Mahavir Singh Phogat and a middle-aged one. For young Phogat, he required a fit and muscular body and for a middle-aged one, he needed to look out of shape and fat.
The dedication levels were so huge that he didn’t care about his health. He first increased his weight manually and then decreased it to justify both his looks.
The whole process was devastating and traumatising for Aamir Khan as he felt problem in breathing along with many other issues.
4. Anushka Sharma (NH10)
Anushka Sharma’s character in NH10 had huge demands and required Anushka to play to the gallery. From romantic scenes to all the scenes filled with trauma, she had to play it all.
Sharing her experience, she said-
“I was in depression when I did the scene of being molested in NH10.”
She added-
“Being punched, kicked in stomach and all that, I was just thinking how humans can be this way. We aren’t exposed to so much in life other than reading in newspaper. But to shoot such scenes are extremely traumatising.”
5. Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Raman Raghav 2.0)
Nawazuddin Siddiqui is another brilliant actor we have in Bollywood. For the character of a serial killer in Raman Raghav 2.0, Nawazuddin opted for method acting and had adverse effects on his mental health.
Nawazuddin was quoted as saying by TOI-
“Somewhere I could not tell what is right and what is wrong. Those lines in my life got blurred. Then what happens is that film gets completed but it stills remains alive in your life as it is said that ‘if you take something from the character then it also takes a lot of things out of your life.”
6. Varun Dhawan (Badlapur)
Varun Dhawan got out of his comfort zone and played a super challenging character in Badlapur. His performance and character sketch got him the best appreciation of his career so far. But as a cost to all this he had to lose an important relationship.
Varun Dhawan had admitted that the character of Badlapur messed him up and as the consequence he had to lose his girlfriend.
7. Alia Bhatt (Udta Punjab)
Alia Bhatt played the character of an abused girl in Udta Punjab which was totally opposite from the way people see her. No doubt she has always played challenging roles, but in this she went too far.
Alia Bhatt had accepted that the gang rape scene was emotionally traumatising for her as she just wanted to complete it and go home.
8. Farhan Akhtar (Bhaag Milkha Bhaag)
Farhan Akhtar totally transformed his look and practised hard to play the role of super athlete Milkha Singh. He was so convincing as Milkha in the film that even after a rather slow start, the film went on to be a 100 crore grosser. The film was loved by audience and so was his performance.
9. Priyanka Chopra (Mary Kom)
Priyanka Chopra practised really hard to play the character of boxer Mary Kom. The practice had changed her body structure and gave her a muscular look.
For her next film, Dil Dhadakne Do she had difficult time in shedding those muscles which were still visible to some extent.
10. Manoj Bajpayee (Aligarh)
Manoj Bajpayee is one of the best actors we’ve in the industry. He is one of those rare actors who give their everything to the character and live it for audience.
For his film Aligarh, Manoj Bajpayee practised extra and got into the skin of his character. The results were outstanding.
Which one is your favorite among these?