Vicky Kaushal’s climax look in ‘Chhaava’ took more than four hours of make-up: Preetisheel Singh D’Souza – Exclusive

Vicky Kaushal is on a rampage with his latest film,

Chhaava

, which is based on the life of Maratha warrior

Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj

. The film is all set to become the first film of 2025 to cross the Rs 200 crore mark. It has cemented Vicky’s position in the industry not just as an actor but also as a star.

One of the highlights of Chhaava is its intense climax, where Vicky’s character endures brutal torture—his skin is peeled off, his nails are pulled out, salt is rubbed into his wounds, and his tongue is even chopped off. In an exclusive interview with ETimes, National Award-winning makeup and prosthetic artist

Preetisheel Singh D’Souza

opened up about how she created the look for this sequence.

She said, “I had a lot of discussions with Laxman Utekar ji. He was clear that he wanted to stay true to how Sambhaji Maharaj was tortured, as described in the book. He wanted to maintain that authenticity in the film as well.”

“When you make films that have such a strong impact on the audience, you want to ensure that your work remains authentic. And hats off to Vicky—this transformation took four and a half hours of makeup. We had to do a full-body transformation, working on his chest, back, legs, and arms. The sequences, like salt being put on his wounds, were built up gradually, and no VFX was used. Vicky would stand, play his playlist, and get into his zone while we worked on him. This was all standing makeup, with a team of 7-8 people working simultaneously. And Vicky who is so true to his art,despite having an arm injury which he suffered during the shot of the film, he never flinched or complained about the time it took to get the make-up done,” she added.
She also revealed that her team created a fake tongue for the tongue-cutting scene. They did a live cast of Vicky’s tongue and then made a prosthetic version that fit over his real tongue like a glove.