Lara Dutta says Akshay Kumar ‘kept staring’ at her BellBottom look: ‘I said what’s wrong with you’

Lara Dutta revealed that Akshay Kumar could not stop looking at her when she transformed into former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for BellBottom.

Lara Dutta said that Akshay Kumar could not stop staring when he saw her look in their upcoming film BellBottom. She plays former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the espionage thriller and had to be in the make-up chair for three hours every day to look the part.

Akshay Kumar and Lara Dutta star together in BellBottom.

In an interview, Lara said that while her look as Indira Gandhi was ‘very unsettling’ for her husband Mahesh Bhupathi, their daughter Saira was also concerned when the prosthetics were being applied to her face.

“Even when Akshay saw me for the first time as the character, I remember he sat next to me and kept staring at me. I was like ‘What is wrong with you? Why are you staring at me?’ He replied, ‘This is so strange. So uncanny.’ So, such were the reactions on the sets of BellBottom,” she told The Indian Express.

“And these reactions kinda tell you the kind of aura and impression Indira Gandhi has even now on people. People were behaving in a very different manner. They were suddenly polite, suddenly standing up for me. For me, it seemed like they have forgotten who I was and what I actually look like,” she added.

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While many were stunned by Lara’s transformation, hairstylist Sapna Bhavnani was not impressed. Responding to a tweet praising the make-up, she wrote, “Such a bad wig though can see the lining of it. But of course, you wouldn’t as you’re not a hair person. We haven’t come close to mastering hair yet.” She went on to share a close-up picture of Lara’s look and wrote, “See this white glaring wig line .. natural hairlines are not like this at all.”

BellBottom, directed by Ranjit M Tewari, stars Vaani Kapoor and Huma Qureshi, apart from Akshay and Lara. The film, said to be inspired by real events, features Akshay as an undercover agent tasked with rescuing more than 200 hostages from a plane hijacking. It is set for a theatrical release on August 19.