‘It took 22 days to turn Ranbir into Sanju!’ - Celebrity hairstylist Aalim Hakim

By Ankita Bhalla

on June 02, 2018

The Hairstylist Hakims and Sanjay Dutt have a thing. In 1981, when Dutt was making his Bollywood debut with Rocky, it was the legendary hairstylist Hakim Kairanvi who styled his hair. Thirty-seven years later, for the biopic Sanju on the mercurial actor by renowned filmmaker Raju Hirani, it is Kairanvi’s son and celebrated hairstylist Aalim Hakim who styled Ranbir Kapoor’s hair for the title role in the film.

The Sanju trailer with Ranbir in and as Sanjay Dutt has been grabbing eyeballs. The young actor has got into the senior’s skin and made it his own. Right from Sanjay’s mannerisms, clothes, speech and hairstyle, even his famous swagger, Ranbir has got it all down to the smallest detail. Among the team working on Ranbir’s prosthetics and makeup for his Dutt avatar, was his trusted hairstylist Aalim from his Saawariya debut in 2007. Aalim describes the experience to PeepingMoon.com in an exclusive interview:

Q. Your dad, Hakim Kairanvi, was close to Sunil Dutt saab...

[caption id="attachment_79843" align="aligncenter" width="675"] L-R: Sunit Dutt, Aalim Hakim with father Hakim Kairanvi on the sets of Sanjay Dutt's debut film 'Rocky'[/caption]

A. My father was close to the Dutt family – both Sunil Dutt and Sanjay. Not many in Bollywood know, but Sanjay’s mundan(religious tonsuring) was done by my father. Even Abhishek Bachchan’s mundan was done by him as he was close Amitabh Bachchan ji.

Q. Ranbir’s ‘Sanjay Dutt’ hairstyles in Sanju have come in for praise? You must be a very proud man…

A. I have been associated with Ranbir since Saawariya in 2007. I also do Sanjay’s hair. I have this album in which I put pictures of these guys. Ranbir told me a year ago about the biopic on Sanjay. I was damn excited. It was nostalgic to recreate a new Sanjay Dutt. We started trails for his look from Sanjay’s various films and it took us 22 days to finalize Ranbir’s different avatars. From the length of the hair to the texture, we worked on many different aspects of hairstyling.

Q. Must have been difficult…

A. Not for me because I am also Sanjay’s hairstylist for many years. But yes, it was a challenge. We tried a lot of things. The difficult part was to create the receding hairline for Ranbir and give him a broad forehead. The important aspect was to keep the density and color of the hair similar. Like the colour Sanjay was using in Munna Bhai, the long locks of Saajan, all these aspects were challenging. But the hairstyle Sanjay sported when he was out of the jail on parole, the blond Mohawk ponytail, stands out. So we also did the same blond chunk of the hair on Ranbir.

Interestingly, when we started rehearsals, we didn’t include the blond chunk, but after much thought, we included the ponytail and the results were bang on. It was great fun but also an emotional experience. So this was all like a happy family moment for me.

Q. How did the Rocky moment in Sanju happen?

A. The day we started the Rocky look test, I told Ranbir how my father Kairanvi created the look for Sanjay’s debut film in 1981.

[caption id="attachment_79844" align="aligncenter" width="333"] Hakim Kairanvi with Sanjay Dutt on the sets of 'Rocky' in 1981[/caption]

It was a proud moment for me to recreate the same look for Ranbir in 2018. I showed him pictures of my father and Sanjay from the sets of Rocky. It was Ranbir’s idea that we recreate the picture by giving the same poses that my father and Sanjay did 37 years ago. That’s how this picture happened.

[caption id="attachment_79838" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Ranbir Kapoor replicating the Dutt-Hakim moment with Aalim Hakim on sets of 'Sanju'[/caption]