Wearing prosthetics for Betaal was liberating: Aahana Kumra

Aahana Kumra essays a counterinsurgency solider in the Netflix zombie miniseries Betaal. Her character, DC Ahluwalia, has a prominent facial scar, attributed to a combat injury in the battlefield. Done by make-up artistes Rebecca Butterworth and Karolina Kuzniak, the complex prosthetics would take at least two hours a day, Aahana shares. The actor shot for the show in Lonavla, Igatpuri and Mumbai. 

“Once the shoot started, I realised how careful an artiste needs to be while wearing prosthetics,” says Aahana. “Firstly, I couldn’t sweat. We were shooting in 45 degrees temperature and it was an army show. There was heat, dust and sometimes it would rain and there was thick mist, but I had to make sure that my make-up wasn’t spoilt, or else it would take another two hours to do it all over again. I learnt a lot on the job because of the prosthetics.”

She adds that the experience has changed her as an artist. ”The first day when I walked out of my vanity, everyone stopped and stared at me. It felt uncomfortable with people looking at your face like there was something wrong with it.”

However, with time, she got used to the process “I don’t think that (her look) ever affected my performance. I was only focused on getting the shot right. It was very liberating, because for once, as an actress, I wasn’t worried about how I looked,” she shares.