A man is known by his moustache ? the chikna brigade might not agree but the Bollywood badshahs do. Getting into the skin of the character, by moochh or by poochh, is trendy, so actors seem to be more concerned about their facial hair than their facial expression. Jokes apart, a particular look does enhance a performance, proved time and again by actors like Aamir Khan, Sunjay Dutt or Kamalahasan.

But the point here is how the moustache and other facial hair has made a difference in Bollywood. Bollywood looks have set trends and here’s looking at some of the most trendy of looks in the past few years.

The underworld look ? Unkempt, stubbled, bearded look, sported by Sunjay Dutt, Amitabh Bachchan, Suniel Shetty, Anil Kapoor in films like Kaante, Musafir or Chocolate or the weird goatee made popular by Sunjay Dutt in Plan is what makes the mean men tick. With Ram Gopal Varma they have also turned corporate, sporting a sober beard or a thin mouche like Ajay Devgan, Randeep Hooda and Abhishek Bachchan in Company, ‘D’ and Sarkar.

While Abhishek takes a turn from his REBEL LOOK in Yuva to the muchchhad ‘comic’ look, copying his father no doubt for the guide sequence in Bunty Aur Babli, we have Vivek Kisna Oberoi softening from the rebel look in Company to the ROMANTIC LOOK with resplendent facial and head hair as well in Kisna.

But sex appeal and romance lie in the stubbled look of John Abraham. He looks oh-so-cool, actually most men do look cool in stubbles, but it’s John and Fardeen with their RUGGED LOOK who can set women’s heart beating wildly. Most of the young brigade have at some point tried the ruggedly romantic looks. You just might call it a ladki patao (or ‘mature’ grown-up) look as Zayed Khan grew bold enough to try pataoing Aishwarya Rai in Shabd or the baby-faced Shahid Kapur or even Aamir Khan in his chikna days. Akshay Kumar sports a very unusual and trendy facial hairstyle which exudes amazing sex appeal in Bewafaa. But on the other hand Zayed’s wayward look in Main Hoon Na may not make the parents happy but had become a rage with the college kids.

With lots of patriotic films being made lately the MILITARY LOOK is in vogue and everyone from Amitabh Bachchan in Lakshya to Akshay Kumar in Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Sathiyo, even Shah Rukh Khan had sported the Army whiskers in Army and definitely one cannot forget Ajay Devgan’s mouche in GangaaJal where he played the controversial police officer.

Now if there are policemen and Army men, convicts are inevitably there. With loads of India-Pak relationship films and war films we also have prisoners of war which brings us to the CONVICT LOOK where the mouche, the beard and the long hair is staple. Akshay Kumar in Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyo or Amitabh Bachchan and Sunjay Dutt in Deewaar have sported this look among others.

Next we have the Boy-next-door look with a moustache of course pioneered by Amol Palekar and he was perhaps the only muchhonwala hero until Anil Kapoor took over. The famous mouche obsession of Utpal Dutt in Golmaal where the moustache becomes a character in itself with Amol agreeing to the proposition ‘Moochh nahin to kuchh nahin’ remains unforgettable. The same Amol has brought back the mouche in Paheli, with chikna Shah Rukh looking like never before.

Possibly, as much was not written on Mallika’s assets or Aishwarya’s wardrobe. But the treatise remains incomplete without mentioning Aamir Khan who is well-known for having sported different styles, moustache or otherwise, to make the characters more realistic. Even for the ads of Coke, where he plays a Bengali Babu he sports a fat whisker, also long hair, and of course the Titan ad where he looks irresistible.

This ‘meticulous actor’ doesn’t believe in anything fake so he grew his hair and whiskers long enough to match Mangal Pandey and lived with it till the end of the film. In fact, somewhere he has mentioned that he had grown so fond of this overgrowths that, “I am still used to twirling my moustache. But when I raise my hands to my lips, I find my moustache missing! So I put my hand down again.”