Prayagraj: City makeup artists bring Ramlila characters alive on stage

PRAYAGRAJ: Ramlila artists who have played pivotal roles in the city Ramlila for years know that their appearance on stage is the factor that brings their character alive and when it comes to enhancing an artist’s character in order to bring it alive before the audience, city makeup artists have always done an impeccable job.
“A makeup artist’s job on a Ramlila set goes far beyond merely beautifying artists.The primary objective of a makeup artist is not to titivate a stage artist’s characters, but to bring them alive on stage before the audiences, says Subodh Singh, director of Katra ramleela committee.
“A makeup artist spends hours to beautify a particular character so that it can appear perfect on the stage,” he added.
“Every character in a Ramlila has a different look and the prime job of a make-up artist is to bring that look to do complete justice to the character. We spend hours to enhance a prominent character of Ramlila and it takes at least four to five hours to embellish characters when Ramlila is staged” he added.
“Our prime job is not to just beautify actors, but to match it with the respective character. When audiences appreciate the characters, the efforts of backdoor artists are recognised, he added.
A team of six make-up artists led by Sanjay Chaudhari is working on Katra Ramlila as it enhances the looks of at least 30 to 35 artists everyday who are playing different roles on stage.
Associated with different Ramlilas for past two decades, Sanjay says, “When a work is assigned, we start visualising the characters first and then discuss the entire plan to prepare the look of the artists with the director.”
With over two decades of experience, Sanjay also believes a lot has been changed in the makeup departments in the past ten years.
“Earlier, a layer of thick makeup was used and it was very evident on the face of the artists. But the scenario has changed and now you can’t figure out if a character has makeup on the face or not because we make it look very normal,” he said.
Sanjay has been doing makeup of artists in Ramlila, albums, theaters and has acoss the country the enhance the look of the actors.