Rohini Hattangady on working with Sridevi in Chaalbaaz: Comedy Gold

Rohini Hattangady and Sridevi in Chaalbaaz

Pune born Rohini Hattangady was deviously delicious in Chaalbaaz and she bounced off so well with her co-stars Anupam Kher and Shakti Kapoor. By far, one of the funniest and most memorable scenes in the film was when Rohini's character and Sridevi's played off each other in the bad makeup scene. As she talks to Rediff about her role, the wonderful actress talks about Sridevi's contribution to the scene:

Rohini Hattangady, "....That's when I got Chaalbaaz and that role really satisfied me. I had done something different. I had done one episode of Karamchand with Pankaj Parashar (the director of Chaalbaaz). It was a fun episode and I had a comic role.

Pankaj approached me for Jalwa where I played the role of a moll, Sri Baby. He liked it a lot and offered me Chaalbaaz.He told me to do any make-up and hairstyle I wanted as I was a punk woman. We tried lots of hairstyles to give me the punk look. I have a very desi face, and plus the make-up had to be done in an hour. I have straight hair so we decided to tie a high bun and keep a hairpiece in the front, which took just 15 minutes to do.

There was a scene where Sridevi does a bad make-up job on me. So Pankaj told me to put on some really bad make-up for the scene. I did some things like a black tooth, made one eye big... but Pankaj was not happy with it.

I was wondering what else I could do when Sridevi asked if she could try. She asked her make-up artist to bring her old wig and gelled it and then did the make-up on my face. When Pankaj saw it, he loved it.

I was very happy doing such roles because it was a change..."

Sridevi, in an earlier interview spoke about the scene fondly too. "I found that scene where I cover Rohini Hattangadi with make-up and stuff quite funny. Actually I was a bit hesitant to do this because I know that no woman wants to look crazy. But Rohiniji was a sport."

The result, as all viewers know, was priceless. Sridevi truly has an artistic touch!

Rohini Hattangady and Sridevi in Chaalbaaz (1989)

Click to enlarge