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Arjun Rampal

Style and Arjun Rampal quite go hand in hand. So when he comes to the Capital to launch a new Tommy Hilfiger store, you aren’t quite surprised. Posing for the shutterbugs, he was giving a tip or two on fashion. “Fashion should always be fun. Anything that lifts your spirits should be your style statement. Never be a fashion victim,” he expressed.

But the moment you take the topic of Om Shanti Om (OSO) , Rampal’s face lights up. “I have never played somebody as bad as Mukesh Mehra. Of course, a lot of research went into it but I guess the hard work has paid off well,” says the handsome hunk. The ’70s part of the film sees Rampal wearing bell bottoms and donning moustaches. “I don’t deserve a bit of the credit for my look in OSO. It was Farah’s brainchild. Shah Rukh was responsible for the moustaches,” he smiles. “For the older look, it used to take me five hours to get into the skin. My make-up artist used to start at four in the morning for a shot at nine. Hats off to her!”

However, Rampal was apprehensive about the older look as he did not want to look artificial. “Our characters just don’t look genuinely old. Besides few exceptions like Nargisji in Mother India, every old character has clichéd whitener in hair and glasses.”

The style of the ’70s, which came in fashion with the movie, has swept off not only the Indian fashion arena, but has also been accepted in the West . “While we were selling the merchandise rights to Shoppers’ Stop, I told Farah that it is not going to work as no one would be ready to wear such clothes. But, during the premiere, I was taken by utter surprise as whole London donned the retro look. English designers have very well embraced it,” he states. Rampal has just wrapped up Rituparno Ghosh’s The Last Lear , with Amitabh Bachhan and Priety Zinta. He is also doing Rock it, where he plays a rock star and EMI, a comedy .

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