Sanjya Dutt’s menacing look is certainly enough to send a few shivers down a lot of people’s spines, but it seems that idea behind the zombie-like make-over came from none other than Hollywood.
Agneepath director Karan Malhotra said that he took inspiration from Marlon Brando’s Apocalypse Now when designing Sanjay’s character, Kancha Cheena.
About his character’s lack of eyebrows and eyelashes, Sanjay told the Hindustan Times newspaper, “He is suffering from an ailment that leaves him hairless. I shaved my head for the role not once, but twice, and the eye-brows and eyelashes have been digitally removed.”
But inspiration from Tinsel Town does not stop at the vintage Apocalypse Now.
Sanjay revealed that he also borrowed some ideas from Tim Burton’s 1989 hit, Batman.
Referring to his character’s mannerisms, which grabbed attention in the promos that saw him muttering “Vijay Deenanth Chauhan ko marna padega” (Vijay Deenanth Chauhan has to die) and then laugh menacingly, he said, “I loved Jack Nicolson’s Joker in Batman and it was on my mind when I was working on Kancha Cheena;s laugh.”
But he also remembers the original version of Agneepath in 1990, which starred Amitabh Buchchan, Mithun Chakraborty and Danny Denzongpa.
“Mithunda’s Krishnan Iyer MA has been done away with in the remake and though Hrithik (Roshan) and I are replaying Vijay and Kancha…their look is different with Vijay in jeans and Kancha in a black ‘dhoti.’”
Sanjay also told the publication that he adored the role and said that the role did not leave him upset, in the same way it left Shah Rukh Khan fighting the blues for a year.
“There’s too much sadness in life for me to court more. I interpreted the character my way with a focused Karan as my guiding light. And the reactons have been “Wow.”
