With such an extravagant set and over the top looks, we wanted the dish from Amar. So we caught up with her to hear all the gossip about her looks and the video shoot.
Check out our exclusive interview:
DH!: For "Sajana" you have chosen to do a darker video in comparison to the others. What is the concept behind this video?
Amar: We wanted a video to fit the song - dark, artsy, haunting, sexy, and most of all simple. The song itself is mostly vocal led with just a few sound layers so the video had to match it. We went through a few different concepts with Shiraz, the director (not the red wine!), and decided to go with this feel - lots of glamour shots, simple sets with one or two bold blocks of color and lighting (the director even made me dye my hair jet black for it), and decided on a mostly performance-based video instead of story-based.
DH!: Was the video entirely your idea or did Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and others pitch ideas?
Amar: Myself and my team sat down and agreed on the idea with the director before pitching the idea to Shankar, Ehsaan, and Loy, who were happy to go with what had been discussed. They are really easy-going guys, and fabulous to work with!
Q?You look exquisite in the video; the multiple outfits, hairstyles, and make up. How many different costume changes are there in the video?
Amar: Thank you so much..There are four looks for me in this one...three costume changes in total! I loved the outfits and looks in this video, I felt that they really represented the feminine and sensuous 'feel' of my parts in the song. At that time in Mumbai, we had shot a few videos all at the same time. This was the last one we did in that batch, and I remember it being my favorite one to shoot.
Q? Who are some of the designers who have created your looks for this video?
Amar: There's a bit of everything in this one. You will see some Chanel, some Kurt Geiger, there's a top from Bebe, a dress that I bought in a London boutique, and dresses actually designed and made on set by young up-and-coming Indian designers.
Q? Do you have a favorite look from the video?
Amar: I do like the sequinned dress, shiny black leggings and hat (the one with all the little lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling), I felt super sexy powerful in that one!!!!
Q? On average, how long does it take you to get ready for a video shoot?
Amar: The funny thing about video shoots is that the actual shots take no time at all to take really. It's getting the sets ready that takes time and getting yourself ready. It's sometimes agonising, each look can take up to two hours on a shoot like this. But the positive is feeling like a princess when each look is done.
One big mistake made on this shoot was that we did the shot with the big afro-style backcombed hair BEFORE the shot where I was against the wall with poker-straight hair!! As you can imagine, it took longer than an hour just to get the tangles out of my hair then almost an hour to get it perfectly straight. Definitely should have done them the other way round!
I'm lucky though, I just plonk myself in a chair (sometimes fall asleep) while everyone else does the hard work, and trust me, I had a great team working on me in India on this shoot, they were brilliantly lovely and professional.
To answer your question though..I would say about two hours on each look, to do hair, make-up, and get the clothes/accessories right.
My dad came to this shoot and didn't recognise me when he came on set, he thought I was with the glamorous dancers lol!
Q? Do you have a rider for the days that you're on a video shoot? Maybe favorite foods, drinks...?
Amar: Not really....I'm a bad girl on the set of videos. I tend to completely lose my appetite. I think it's because I have people around me poking and prodding at all times, and you never get a moment to yourself to actually relax and then you have on all this make-up and amazing costumes. There's no real time to eat, as you are being worked on and getting ready in between takes, and time is always an issue, so you really take what you can, when you can, that's small and isn't going to make you tired.
I think, in my head I want to eat properly at the end anyway, when I can get everything off and actually sit down, relax and eat. So I tend to survive on energy drinks and little snacks such as energy bars that people shove at me on shoots! Then when I'm done, I have a proper meal.
I remember on "Sajana," as this was the last shoot of this run of videos; I had told my team I would be eating some chocolate cake at the end of the day as my prize. When I got back to my apartment my producer Charlie Hype had bought one and put it in my fridge!
Q? Any funny anecdotes you would like to share with us about your video shoot, maybe a practical joke, technical difficulty...?
Amar: My dad came to this shoot and didn't recognise me when he came on set, he thought I was with the glamorous dancers lol!
A bad situation happened as well, where one of the crew members who was bringing everyone teas, coffees, food (a general runner basically) got hit in the eye by a flying spark from one of the machines that was generating smoke. It was not nice, I wanted to give the guy a hug I felt so bad for him...he had been running after all of us day and I hated the fact that he got hurt on my shoot. He was ok though luckily.
Spending the day with Amar on a video shoot sounds like a blast! What do you think? Share your thoughts on this interview!
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Celebrity Interview
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