Vanity van or makeup vans have become an obvious amenity for Bollywood. In the past decade, vanity has gained so much importance that Shahrukh Khan has recently bought a second one, which is worth 1BHK flat in Bandra.
Every star in the Bollywood – Ajay Devgn to Deepika Padukone – has a vanity van or even two of his own, while other supporting stars and junior casts hire one for their shoots.
A businessmen indulged into the business told TOI that there are nothing less than 350 vanity vans, which are regularly booked by film stars for the shoot. Charged at Rs. 4000 per shift and Rs. 2000 for driver and cleaning staff paid extra.
Previously, when there was no vanity van, makeup rooms were used by top stars. These makeup rooms have turned out to be a history for Indian cinema. In early 80’s there were a very few makeup rooms in Flimcity, Mumbai, one among them was honeymoon room which was generally reserved only for Hema Malini and Darmendra.
Another big makeup room was there at Flimstan Studios, which was often fought for as it was the most spacious one. The other one was at Mehboob Studios that was kept reserved for Dev Anand, after him superstars like Amitabh Bachchan occupied.
An executive producer recently told TOI that “In last two decades, the makeup vans are universal at film shoots”.
Whereas Kareena Kapoor Khan says “We feel more comfortable in our vans” adding to it “It makes perfect sense for us to have one at our shoots”.
Ajay Devgn defines vanity vans to be more personal purpose, he says that “it gives us the privacy we need”.
The vanity vans are generally parked right outside the set, which saves stars time and efforts walking all the way to makeup rooms, moreover all the makeup rooms in Filmcity are in damaged conditions. It also helps avoiding crowd around them, as there were number of incidents that actors and actresses were harassed by the fans.
Superstar vanities are customized as per the requirement of its respective owner. There is almost every luxurious facility available to the star, along with basic needs such as a bed, kitchen, vacuum toilets, bath, gaming stations and huge televisions etc. Fitness junkies also accommodate small gym in their vanity vans.
Actors like Sanjay Dutt has 50 – foot long vanity van, whereas Anil Kapoor has one which is nearly 42 – foot long. But appeal for the vanity van is still high, which is parallel to the security provided in the vanities of both actor and actresses.
