Wolverhampton's Satinder enjoys glittering night out at the Baftas
Wolverhampton-born make up artist Satinder Chumber enjoyed the red carpet treatment at Sunday night's Baftas ceremony.
Satinder was nominated for his work on Ridley Scott's epic Napoleon, where the prosthetics expert supervised a team of 25 people preparing both the cast of humans and horses for the movie, which has grossed over $220m since its release.
The glittering awards ceremony at London's Royal Festival Hall saw Oppenheimer sweep the board with seven awards, including best film
Although Satinder didn't win in the category for which he was nominated – hair and make up – he enjoyed a star-studded night at London's Royal Festival Hall with his wife, Ellie Maidment, and other crew members from Napoleon, including make-up designer Jana Corboni, hair designer Francesco Pegoretti and crowd make up supervisor Julia Vernon.
It's a far cry from growing up in Wolverhampton for the 42-year-old father of one, who has been active in the industry for 15 years and before that took a variety of jobs including working at the city's art gallery as he tried to make his way in the industry.
Satinder attended Colton Hills Community School in Wolverhampton, where he said he 'wasn't very academic' – later in life he was found to be dyslexic – before attending Walsall College of Arts and Technology and then London South Bank University.
Other movies he has worked on include Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Locked In and Matriarch as well as many TV series. His work has taken him to Florida and New York although he is based in Luton, around where a lot of the filming for Napoleon took place.
Satinder said: "The work was intense on Napoleon, we had to create 100 background bodies, 30 horse bodies and 15 likeness bodies as well as creating an image of five horses being guillotined.
"We were on set or in the workshops from later November 2021 until April 2022 and then on post production – a lot obviously goes into making a movie behind the scenes and Ridley Scott is a perfectionist and a legend; it was wonderful working with him.
"For example one of the scenes had to be re-shot on his orders due to an event that had taken place in Ukraine. To watch him direct is an amazing experience and I am so happy I have been able to work with him and such a great team.
"The nomination was reward for all the hard work, it is the second one I have received as well as for the American Make Up and Hair Stylist Guild awards for working on Electric Dreams, but this was a bit special to go to London and enjoy what is such a massive occasion.
"I am pretty grounded, my upbringing has seen to that and I visit Wolverhampton every couple of months, I always say I am trying to get away but keep coming back but I have a lot of family still here and the Black Country gave me my start and I will always be grateful."
