Recently, there was an article in a newspaper that stated actresses Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif were too tall for actors Shahid Kapoor and Aamir Khan. Amitabh Bachchan, taking the opportunity, jokingly uploaded his resume on Twitter, giving particular emphasis to his height.
He wrote, “Job Application: Name: Amitabh Bachchan, DOB: 11.10.1942, Allahabad, Age: 76, credentials: Worked in films for 49 years, in approximately 200 films, speaks Hindi, English, Punjabi, Bengali, Height: 6’2’’. Available: You shall never have height problem!”
Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma are among the tallest actresses in Bollywood. While they are definitely in the top league, their height often poses problems for filmmakers, especially if their leading man is someone like Shahid Kapoor or Aamir Khan — both are considerably shorter than these heroines.
This was one of the several problems that Sanjay Leela Bhansali faced while filming Padmaavat — how to make Shahid Kapoor look as tall, if not taller, than his leading lady Deepika Padukone.
It seems the unit had to constantly fudge Shahid’s height to make him look as tall as Deepika.
Just take a look at this song and you will realize how they fudged it — either Shahid is sitting down, or bending, and there’s not even a single full length shot of the two standing next to each other. In the scenes were they are shown standing, I guess Shahid is standing on something to make him look as tall.
“Shahid was playing the King and Deepika was playing the Queen. He couldn’t possibly look shorter than her on screen. It would have gone against royal protocol. Bhansali and the unit had to constantly fudge Shahid’s height to make him look as tall,” says a source.
The makers of Thugs Of Hindostan are now facing a similar problem with their leading man Aamir Khan, who is paired opposite Katrina Kaif.
“Katrina is way too tall for Aamir’s height. There is a constant stress on the sets to ensure they look equally matched on screen,” says a source from Yashraj.
While height is not a factor in Hollywood, I guess it will take some time for people in India to get used to the fact that women could be taller than men, and its perfectly alright.
