The Dirty Picture

Beautifully recreating the retro era has become Balaji and Milan Luthria’s forte.After magnificently transporting the audience to the 80’s Bombay in Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, it’s turn to recreate the 80’s Chennai in the forthcoming The Dirty Picture. View second photo above.

The keenly awaited multi-starrer is about the colourful, musical, and romantic journey of the 80’s Tamil screen sensation, Silk Smitha, being played by Vidya Balan. Tusshar, Emraan Hashmi and Naseeruddin Shah play the men in her life.

Laughs Luthria, “ Right now we are in full Chennai mode. Wherever we look we see people dressed in lungis. Tamil posters adorn our walls, we start our day eating idlis to get into the mode. We bought books and watched Hindi and Tamil films of the 80’s, and put that all together to arrive at an authentic colour palette.”

An elaborate Chennai set has been set up in Mumbai’s Film City these days where the film’s cast has been shooting. “The sets have huge cut outs of Naseeruddin Shah who plays a huge south-Indian star in the film. We painted the old taxis and auto rickshaws, and even had to change all the number plates, as it was Madras then and not Chennai,” he adds.

The dirty Picture hits theatres in November 2011.