Kamal Hassan’s Dasavatharam

Kamal Haasan has once again proved that he is a rare kind of artiste who leaves no stones unturned when it comes to novelty on screen.

Everyone knows that Kamal Haasan dons ten different roles in ‘Dasavadharam’, directed by K.S. Ravikumar. But few would have known how much pains he has taken to handle so much of roles.

Each and every role demanded a lot of hard work and pain to the actor, informs Anil Pemgirikar, the co-make up artist. "For example, for the role of a 98 year old lady, the makeup process consumed eight hours per day. We shot for 45 days for this scene. But, you know, the scene runs only for fifteen minutes in the film”, says Anil.

Similarly, informs Anil, Kamal watched all possible clippings of President George W. Bush for the scene featuring him and the unit shot the scene for 60 days. The screen time for the scene is just seven minutes.

Kamal’s makeup process used to go up to 8-9 hours daily. The actor used to wake up at three o’ clock in the morning to start the process. "But the shooting would last for only for an hour, as the make up would peel off after an hour", Anil explains. “Kamal underwent a lot of pain while the makeup was taken off. He also had a lot of skin allergies. But the actor was unperturbed and raring to go”, says Anil with lot of admiration towards the actor.

Kamal’s efforts received applause from none other than his friend Rajinikanth. The Superstar came to sets one day and witnessed the proceedings. He was so impressed that he spontaneously clapped in absolute fascination, recalls Anil.

Meanwhile, following Jackie Chan’s confirmation on his arrival, the date of ‘Dasavadharam’ audio release is finalized (on April 25). Kamal Haasan is all praise for the producer Oscar Ravichandran for his whole hearted cooperation. According to Kamal, the film is arguably the costliest film ever made in India.

Coming to the post production works, four reels have been completed with rerecording and special effects work. It took nearly four weeks as opposed to the normal period of one week for these works. Though Himesh Reshammiya scores the music, it is Devi Sri Prasad, who does the rerecording.