Anna Hazare, real to reel

Inspired by the life of Kisan Baburao Hazare aka Anna Hazare, writer-director-actor Shashank Udapurkar started scripting a biopic, Anna, three years ago. The physical transformation to look like the social activist started eight months before they started shooting.The film rolled last June and continued till July 2016.
'I lost around eight kg to play the 22-year-old Anna who was in the army then, living on salads, oats and fruits.Later, I put on almost 12 kg to look like the Anna of today. I played badminton twice a day to stay fit,' informs Shashank, who refused to resort to prosthetics, turning instead to his make-up man Vikram Gaikwad.
'My interaction with Anna helped me with the prep, being a Mahrashtrian myself the lingo was not a problem,' he beams, adding that when Anna saw the stills he complimented Shashank saying he looked a lot like him.