'People may not recognise me and my mom will cry looking at me,” said Swastika Mukherjee as she sat through the most dramatic haircut of her life at Satin Rose, Camac Street, on Monday afternoon. Within an hour, Swastika’s beautiful shoulder-length hair was going-going-gone... from one side! All for Mainak Bhaumik’s Golpo Oder where she plays Sree, Rituparna Sengupta’s younger sister, a self-destructive girl. The film rolls on the floors on October 8 but Swastika became Sree on Monday, with Mainak and t2 for company.

Shocked, sad, numb... how do you exactly feel looking at yourself in the mirror?

Swastika: I am not sad at all. My character Sree needs to look like this. She is a gloomy, self-destructive drug addict and in the film she chops off her own hair. So our brief to Jolly (Chanda, hairstylist) was that it shouldn’t look stylish. Late one night Mainak WhatsApped me saying that he wanted me to cut my hair. So for reference I WhatsApped him (Anger Management actress) Selma Blair’s picture and he too sent me the same picture! So we were bang on. But there’s a portion in Golpo Oder where I have long hair, where obviously I will have to wear a wig. Sree basically messes up her hair when she is agitated or irritated. The only cause of worry is that my hair grows real slow. So I might have to wait till I am 40 to have long hair again!

Mainak: It’s a common trend among girls when they are depressed, the first thing they attack is their hair!

 

But Mainak, what prompted you to go bald?

Mainak: Moral support to Swastika! (Pssst: An unreliable source close to Mainak told us that he went bald after his haircut went horribly wrong. And yes, Mainak cuts his own hair!)

 

Late one night Mainak WhatsApped me saying that he wanted me to cut my hair for Golpo Oder. So for reference I WhatsApped him (Anger Management actress) Selma Blair’s picture and he too sent me the same picture! So we were bang on

What would you call this cut and why does Sree in Golpo Oder need to look like a boy?

Mainak: This is a screwed-up cut!

Swastika: Pixie cut gone wrong! (Laughs)

Mainak: I had written the character for a boy. But since I didn’t find a boy to play the character I chose Swastika!

Swastika: Anyway, it’s a given that I am there in all his films!

Mainak: Essentially Sree is a destructive personality. Also for a long time Swastika and I wanted to mess around with her hair. She is game for anything and it gives a very different texture to the person, trying to break away from all the roles she has played on screen. For both of us our last film is our competition, we want to do something different in our next film, always.

Swastika: Mainak told me I needed to look ugly. But isn’t it mission impossible to make Swastika look ugly?

For a long time Swastika and I wanted to mess around with her hair. She is game for anything and it gives a very different texture to the person, trying to break away from all the roles she has played on screen — Mainak Bhaumik, who has gone bald in “moral support” of Swastika

Mainak: See, ugly is the common term. I think she looks fascinating. In our industry people hardly experiment with something that’s negative. But I am still at it, still trying to make her look ugly one day! (Laughs)

Swastika: Yes, we have plans to be more drastic in the next film! My career’s last film will be with Mainak where I will have long hair with loose curls and I will wear lipstick and gloss and go totally over the top!

Mainak: Yes, we will have a dream sequence where I am dreaming of you in that kind of a get-up! (Laughs)

Swastika: Mainak’s told me not to wax my hands and legs because he wants that untidy look.

Are you at a stage where you are ready to do anything for a role?

Swastika: I was always ready. I think you have to have the experience to pull off certain characters. I don’t think six years back I could have done a Take One. You have to have that baggage of experience in your life and also that maturity has to come. Now I can say, give me anything and I am game.

Mainak: The idea was to make the haircut stylised but at the same time it should be very real. It should actually look like somebody’s done it to herself.

Not too many actresses would agree to do this...

Swastika: Too many? I don’t think anybody would do it. In a way they are right because they look good the way they are. I look good in everything, so how does it matter?! (Laughs)

Mainak: See, our major point of confidence came from Maach Mishti & More. That scene of Swastika roaming around in shorts, and she was fat, and everyone liked it.

Will you be making public appearances with this haircut?

Swastika: Yes, and I am not going to wear a wig.

Kushali Nag
Swastika going in for such a haircut for a role proves that she is... Tell t2@abp.in