Watch How SRK’s Dwarf Character in ‘Zero’ Was Created With VFX

Shah Rukh Khan plays the ‘vertically challenged’ Bauaa Singh in the film.

A still from Zero featuring Shah Rukh Khan as the dwarf Bauaa Singh.

For all the perceived faults of its shoddy script, there’re no denying the larger-than-life, chaotic, colourful universe that Aanand L Rai’s Zero portrays. The ambitious film employed extensive VFX to bring this world alive and especially to depict Shah Rukh Khan as Bauaa Singh, a dwarf.

The film’s production house, Red Chillies Entertainment, has released a video that offers further insight into how the visual effects team pulled off such a demanding project. Take a look.

The video features interviews with VFX supervisor Harry Hingorani, co-producer Karuna Badwal and the lead cast of Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma. Hingorani mentions that director Aanand L Rai gave the visual effects team free rein saying, “Do what you want but Bauaa has to look cute.”

Each scene had to be filmed five times. To begin with, the entire shot was visualised with the help of a real-life dwarf named Aashish (though he doesn’t ever appear as a stand-in for Shah Rukh in the film) and a 3D model was made for the team to work off. Each aspect of every scene needed to be mapped visually before it was shot. The makers had to also take separate shots of Shah Rukh and of the background in isolation.

A moveable Lego-like platform was built on set. This allowed Shah Rukh to be filmed at a lower height than the rest of the cast and yet enable to interact normally despite the height difference.