Makeup artist hits back at Anurag Kashyap for statement on star entourages: ‘His heroine wears a ₹250 saree’
Recently, Anurag Kashyap started a conversation about star entourages when he mentioned that an actor always had a chef on hand to make food on sets.
Makeup artist Shaan Muttathil, who works with Jacqueline Fernandez and recently did the makeup for Radhika Merchant during the NMACC opening, hit back at director Anurag Kashyap for his recent statement on star entourages. In an interview on the Phitte Muh podcast, he claimed that Anurag is in ‘his bubble’ of films, which might not require an entourage but most of the movies work otherwise. (Also Read: Anurag Kashyap calls out racism in Bollywood: ‘They think Nawazuddin is dark-skinned, Manoj Bajpayee gaonwala hai’)
‘There’s a lot of jealousy’
Shaan claimed that even Anurag, who has given so many hits, wouldn’t go do a movie for the amount a newcomer director would. He said, “What Anurag sir is saying is his world, his bubble. But there's another world too. Will this Anurag sir, after so many hits, go and do a movie for what a newcomer director will do? No. Of course, there’s a lot of jealousy, and I completely understand. Because we do get paid more than managers, than first ADs, and people in the camera department.”
He also claimed that Anurag doesn’t understand the need for entourage because he doesn’t make movies where ‘there is a chiffon saree and blow-dried hair’ like Karan Johar or Mohit Suri. Instead, he’s making films set in ‘some village with a heroine in a cotton saree of ₹250 who wakes up and cries’. Shaan says it doesn't mean the entourage can reduce their cost.
Shaan added, “Of course, he can lose his s**t when he hears ₹1.5 lakh for makeup and hair when his heroines don’t need makeup and hair, I understand. But not everybody gets paid ₹1 lakh or ₹2 lakh. There are only around 10 of us. First of all, I wouldn’t get a call from him. In his films, he will have to call me to get the dark circles and to make the hair look frizzy. That’s what his heroines look like.”
‘Is this food or birdfeed’
Anurag recently spoke about the extraneous costs associated with stars these days in an interview with Janice Sequeira. “Somebody has a chef who charges ₹2 lakh per day to make this strange healthy food. Jo dekh ke lagta tha ye khana hai? Yeh to bird feed hai. Itna chhota sa aata tha. (I wonder if this is food or bird feed. The portion size is too small.)
He also spoke about it to Humans of Cinema, he said, “A lot of money that is spent doesn’t go into making the film. It goes into the paraphernalia, it goes into the entourage. You’re shooting in the middle of a jungle, but one car will be sent to the city three hours away specifically to get you that five-star burger you want.”