Saif plays a Naga Sadhu who is a bounty hunter in the film directed by Navdeep Singh.
"A Naga Sadhu is a man who renounces social life and all his belongings. The sadhus are always covered with ash, which is like white powder. As they follow God's path, they do not care about themselves. They never cut their hair and beard, so dreadlocks are natural. This is where the inspiration for the look came from," said Darshan.
"The Naga look is very original, distinct and bold. The thought was to bring it alive on Saif. Now for that, we had to work with long hair, dreads and beard, so I asked Saif to grow his hair and beard because then we could get a seamless blend between real hair and extensions," he explained.
The first look test was quite a struggle.
"The first look almost lasted for two hours. Not only the director and the production, even Saif was patient because he understood that we were trying to create something that was out of our comfort zone. It is not every day I create such a drastic look, so I had to improvise and experiment," said Darshan."Laal Kaptaan", co-produced by Eros International and Aanand L Rai's banner Colour Yellow Productions, is scheduled to release on October 18.
( With inputs from IANS )