Behind the beard

It’s quite hard to accept ‘Golden Star’ Ganesh in a role other than that of a romantic hero.
Most of his fans loved him as a romantic and he has also managed to get the tag of a lover boy.

But director PC Shekar is helping Ganesh break free from the tag of a romantic hero. Shekar is experimenting with something new in his forthcoming venture ‘Style King’.

It will be for the first time that Ganesh will be appearing in a double role. Shekar says, “I have created two contrasting characters. In one role, Ganesh comes across as a soft, calm and stylish guy in his own way but in the other, he’s at his crudest best. He’s a mafia king. That’s why the movie is called ‘Style King,’” Shekar tells Metrolife. 

Shekar confesses that it required a lot of psychological preparation for the role and it took Shekar three months to finalise Ganesh’s look in the film.

“I wanted Ganesh to sport a sharp straight face, so I got my art director to sketch a couple of raw images that I had in mind. We finally zeroed in on one that camouflages Ganesh the most and projects him in a new light,” explains Shekar.

Shekar spent a lot of time with the art director and they worked on a couple of looks. “I didn’t want a regular bearded look. So we drew an oval face and shaped the beard in such a way that his face looked straight. We finally got the perfect look after a couple of trials,” adds Shekar.

After finalising the look, Shekar got a wig made. “Ganesh grew a bit of a beard and the rest is actually held together with a special glue, that’s bought from overseas. It took us three months,” shares Shekar.

Ganesh’s new look has been used in the promotional video, which has been released. “I wanted to release Ganesh’s look much in advance of the film’s release because I wanted people to psychologically start accepting Ganesh in his new avatar. I wanted to prepare the audience,” he explains.

The video captures both characters, played by Ganesh, in a creative way.

“His soft-mannered side and his crude look are juxtaposed in the movie. The cruder side of Ganesh talks less and let his action do all the talking,” Shekar sums up.