Look...we’re changing!

Talk of reinvention, and the ���Khan���daan always seems to put their experimental foot forward. What can be the reason when Bollywood���s Badshah decides to dish out a bespectacled performance in his forthcoming, a far cry from the romantic Karans or Rahuls that he has essayed so far?
When such established stars opt for an innovative romance with the pancake, is it to ensure greater mileage for their releases? Or, is it more of a simple case of stars wanting to explore newer avenues that result in such reinvention?
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh firmly dismisses the view that reinvention for these stars stems from the desire to hog greater print space.���For example, SRK, Aamir and Hrithik are forever ready to reinvent themselves. They aren���t hankering for publicity. It has to do with exploring new horizons,��� he justifies while adding, that the script too calls the shots in terms of reinvention.
So when a Salman sheds his Yuvvraaj look and works out for a six-pack warrior look in Veer, he does so for the character. Even Anil Sharma, the period film���s director, seconds this view. ���Salman, when playing the character, has to be the character. I want my actor to live the role, not just show it,��� Sharma adds.
Of course, reinvention doesn���t come easy. Aamir���s shaved look for Ghajini or the long hair look in Mangal Pandey didn���t happen overnight. Thanks to the one-and-a half hour balding session by celebrity hair stylist Avan Contractor, Aamir���s shaved head is also generating the right kind of publicity noise for the film. To this, Goldie Behl, who went all out for Abhishek���s barbaric look in Drona, reasons, ���Publicity is more of a spin off. Fact is, with actors taking up one project at a time, they have ample time to work on their look.���
But ���look���ing further will also reveal that sometimes, ���sheer boredom��� makes the actors opt for reinvention. That���s what director Sajid Khan says while confirming that the ���look��� package does add on to the publicity factor.
However, while B-town is going the whole hog for reinvented look in a commercial format, Tollywood is still hooked on to the conventional quotient. A Prosenjit Chatterjee did flaunt a stubble in Rituparno Ghosh���s Khela or a Dosar but a Mahakal, Mr Funtoosh or a Bondhu will seldom see him going against the commercial tide.
Even a Rituparna Sengupta is given a different look in a Dahan, Paromitar Ekdin or a Chaturanga. But when it comes to cashing in on Ritu���s masala flavour, Tollywood is still gung-ho about the tried-and-tested formula. ���That���s because the audience here has set ideas about stars��� image. Trying something new might work or fall flat on its face. Being a small industry, it gets difficult to take such risks in Tollywood,��� the actor reasons.
In the naya daur to looking different, here���s hoping that the exposure to national films might some day make the local industry more forthcoming about accepting reinvention for the stars.