KGF: Chapter 1’s Garuda, Ram’s next big villain character in Kannada is in the upcoming action drama Bagheera, in which he is pitted against Roaring Star Sriimurali. Bagheera is Ram’s third film with Hombale Films; he had a role in Salaar: Ceasefire as well. In the Dr Suri directorial, Ram’s character sports a half-burnt face, a look that the filmmaker chose after a lot of trial and error with makeup and prosthetics.

“When I was chosen to play the antagonist in Bagheera, Dr Suri sir said that I look the same in most of my films and that I had to look different this time around. He then came up with the idea of having a half-burnt face, which will be explained in the narrative as to how he came to be like that. Suri sir got makeup artistes from different places to experiment with the look and we did several trials, but he was not satisfied,” says Ram.

One of the makeup artistes who had done a trial was Prakash, who works in Kannada cinema. “Despite the initial setback, Prakash requested Suri sir to give him one more chance and designed a look, which, yet again, did not impress. He persisted, though, and came up with one more look, a day before we went on floors with the film and that clicked. From then on, it was only a question of maintaining the look as is,” explains the actor.

While the trailer hints that the burn is an injury he sustained in his childhood, Ram says that it is a major twist in the tale and, hence, cannot divulge more about how it happens, why and so on and so forth. The look, meanwhile, is being likened to Gotham City’s former District Attorney Harvey Dent in Batman, a one-time ally of the Dark Knight, who then turns villainous, after he is left with only half a face.

Read Also: Mammootty’s character in Jithin K Jose’s film is inspired by THIS real-life criminal; say reports