Grand sets add to movie grandeur
doweshowbellyad=0; Saawariya's fantasy town was created with 10 sets It may not exactly have set the box-office afire, but there's one thing even the critics have unanimously acknowledged: Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya is a visual delight — in no dome small measure due to the opulent, blue-green 'peacock' sets. "Since the story was short (based on Dostoevsky's White Nights, it stretches over just four nights), the sets had to speak a lot by being larger than life," says the film's art director Omung Kumar. From an English castle, Gothic church, historical forts to Seventies retro, Bollywood creates it all on home turf.
That's because a demanding audience and more overseas releases have forced the film industry to reinvent itself and focus on the 'look' of the film. Be it unusual stories, costumes, props or film sets, all are thrown together to give visual splendour. And for this, the premium attached to location shooting is no longer important.
"Producers like to create their own sets because we have excellent technical support in our industry," says art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai, a veteran with 22 years' experience in this line. In the news for designing the magnificent sets of Mughal biopic Jodhaa Akbar (slated for a January 2008 release), Nitin maintains, "In historical films, many issues crop up like permissions (to shoot in forts etc), animals, props etc. So it's better to create your own sets where the situation is under control.
"It's also not easy to find virgin locations. "Once shot, these locations get exposed and become prime targets to be copied by TV serials," says Kreeshann Choudhary, producer of soon-to-release Right Yaa Wrong (RYW). Moreover it's difficult to shoot outdoors.
"The public creates a nuisance, the lighting, weather, budget and permissions — all go haywire," says Sabu Cyril, art director of Om Shanti Om (OSO), Bhool Bhulaiya and the forthcoming Alladin. Sample this — 75% of the shooting of Bhool Bhuliaya was done indoors. The rest was shot in Rajasthan where natural light was erratic and getting permission to shoot at city halls, forts and other places was difficult.
"We could have easily saved Rs 60 lakh, had we not ventured outdoors," says Sabu. Little wonder that most filmmakers now take only external shots on location and create the interiors in studios. Vikram Bhatt did it for his forthcoming horror flick 1920, for which he shot the exteriors of a castle in London and then created its interiors in Film City, Mumbai.
Choudhary, too, created a mansion for Rs 40 lakh at a five-star hotel in Juhu for RYW. It had a massive living room along with a swimming pool. The look was kept secret with fenced walls and patrolling guards.
But for sheer secrecy, nothing beats the closely guarded look of Jodhaa Akbar. It became such a talking point amongst art aficionados that visitors like Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, Hollywood actor Ralph Fiennes, Sanjay Dutt and Amitabh Bachchan dropped by earlier this year, unable to resist its lure.Nitin Desai, who's known to set benchmarks in an industry which earlier mocked authenticity and research when it came to set design, started work on Jodhaa Akbar eight months ahead of the actual shooting.
"I took lakhs of photographs in Agra and Jaipur which were used as reference points." As a result, he meticulously created an exact replica of the interiors of Amer Fort (near Jaipur). "Only the exterior shot of the fort was taken at Amer, the rest was all created indoor at Karjat," he says.
Nitin also created an inch-by-inch replica of the Agra Fort, along with Deewan-i-aam, Deewan-i-khas, Jodha Mahal and fully landscaped Mughal gardens. Constructed at Desai's Karjat studio, the set measures 1,600ft x 600ft x 68ft. "It's as huge as the seven floors of a high-rise," says Desai, who used concrete, fibre, asbestos sheets, scaffolding and pipes to create the structure.
"It's like creating a real city, where you can come blue and visit." As film directors become experimental, it's the art directors who are basking in newfound creativity. Tampering with wood, cardboard, fibre, metal, cement, paint and plastic, they are creating make-believe landscapes, castles, towns with neon lights and mansions.
Be it a middle class house, or a period drama, nothing seems to be ordinary anymore. For example, Saawariya's fantasy town, where it snowed and rained at the same time, was created with merely 10 sets that had ethereal architecture with a dash of Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge. "Sanjay's brief was 'give me a world where no one has ever lived before, a painting which no one has ever painted'.
He wanted a make-believe town," says Omung who refused to divulge the cost of the sets, though the film's budget was reportedly Rs 40 crore. So you have wooden planks, cement (for water tanks), lot of moulding, paint, fibre, shimmer, fabric and 10,000 bulbs — no prizes for guessing — blue-green in colour, all of which were used to create the sets and props like a large Buddha, a silent bridge overlooking a lake in the middle of the town with real lotuses and specially designed boats, a clock tower and neon signs. The entire outdoors was created indoors. "I live in the world of opera, theatre and lights.
.. when Sanjay handed it all on a platter for me to create, I couldn't have asked for more," says Omung.Meanwhile, fire never looked as good as it did on a single set of OSO — a huge hall of 140 ft by 120 ft, which was burnt down after barely one shot was filmed in it. Beautifully crafted interiors inspired by Roman architecture and huge pillars (as was the trend in 70s), along with an acrylic dome made of metal and stained glass (20ft in diameter and 15 ft in height) go up in flames, along with the characters played by lead pair Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone.
Considered one the high points of the blockbusting film, this set took 20 days to build with barely four days of shooting. "It cost Rs 80 lakh alone from the total outlay of Rs 9 crore for the entire 60 sets of OSO," says Sabu. The film was reportedly area
That's because a demanding audience and more overseas releases have forced the film industry to reinvent itself and focus on the 'look' of the film. Be it unusual stories, costumes, props or film sets, all are thrown together to give visual splendour. And for this, the premium attached to location shooting is no longer important.
"Producers like to create their own sets because we have excellent technical support in our industry," says art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai, a veteran with 22 years' experience in this line. In the news for designing the magnificent sets of Mughal biopic Jodhaa Akbar (slated for a January 2008 release), Nitin maintains, "In historical films, many issues crop up like permissions (to shoot in forts etc), animals, props etc. So it's better to create your own sets where the situation is under control.
"It's also not easy to find virgin locations. "Once shot, these locations get exposed and become prime targets to be copied by TV serials," says Kreeshann Choudhary, producer of soon-to-release Right Yaa Wrong (RYW). Moreover it's difficult to shoot outdoors.
"The public creates a nuisance, the lighting, weather, budget and permissions — all go haywire," says Sabu Cyril, art director of Om Shanti Om (OSO), Bhool Bhulaiya and the forthcoming Alladin. Sample this — 75% of the shooting of Bhool Bhuliaya was done indoors. The rest was shot in Rajasthan where natural light was erratic and getting permission to shoot at city halls, forts and other places was difficult.
"We could have easily saved Rs 60 lakh, had we not ventured outdoors," says Sabu. Little wonder that most filmmakers now take only external shots on location and create the interiors in studios. Vikram Bhatt did it for his forthcoming horror flick 1920, for which he shot the exteriors of a castle in London and then created its interiors in Film City, Mumbai.
Choudhary, too, created a mansion for Rs 40 lakh at a five-star hotel in Juhu for RYW. It had a massive living room along with a swimming pool. The look was kept secret with fenced walls and patrolling guards.
But for sheer secrecy, nothing beats the closely guarded look of Jodhaa Akbar. It became such a talking point amongst art aficionados that visitors like Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, Hollywood actor Ralph Fiennes, Sanjay Dutt and Amitabh Bachchan dropped by earlier this year, unable to resist its lure.Nitin Desai, who's known to set benchmarks in an industry which earlier mocked authenticity and research when it came to set design, started work on Jodhaa Akbar eight months ahead of the actual shooting.
"I took lakhs of photographs in Agra and Jaipur which were used as reference points." As a result, he meticulously created an exact replica of the interiors of Amer Fort (near Jaipur). "Only the exterior shot of the fort was taken at Amer, the rest was all created indoor at Karjat," he says.
Nitin also created an inch-by-inch replica of the Agra Fort, along with Deewan-i-aam, Deewan-i-khas, Jodha Mahal and fully landscaped Mughal gardens. Constructed at Desai's Karjat studio, the set measures 1,600ft x 600ft x 68ft. "It's as huge as the seven floors of a high-rise," says Desai, who used concrete, fibre, asbestos sheets, scaffolding and pipes to create the structure.
"It's like creating a real city, where you can come blue and visit." As film directors become experimental, it's the art directors who are basking in newfound creativity. Tampering with wood, cardboard, fibre, metal, cement, paint and plastic, they are creating make-believe landscapes, castles, towns with neon lights and mansions.
Be it a middle class house, or a period drama, nothing seems to be ordinary anymore. For example, Saawariya's fantasy town, where it snowed and rained at the same time, was created with merely 10 sets that had ethereal architecture with a dash of Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge. "Sanjay's brief was 'give me a world where no one has ever lived before, a painting which no one has ever painted'.
He wanted a make-believe town," says Omung who refused to divulge the cost of the sets, though the film's budget was reportedly Rs 40 crore. So you have wooden planks, cement (for water tanks), lot of moulding, paint, fibre, shimmer, fabric and 10,000 bulbs — no prizes for guessing — blue-green in colour, all of which were used to create the sets and props like a large Buddha, a silent bridge overlooking a lake in the middle of the town with real lotuses and specially designed boats, a clock tower and neon signs. The entire outdoors was created indoors. "I live in the world of opera, theatre and lights.
.. when Sanjay handed it all on a platter for me to create, I couldn't have asked for more," says Omung.Meanwhile, fire never looked as good as it did on a single set of OSO — a huge hall of 140 ft by 120 ft, which was burnt down after barely one shot was filmed in it. Beautifully crafted interiors inspired by Roman architecture and huge pillars (as was the trend in 70s), along with an acrylic dome made of metal and stained glass (20ft in diameter and 15 ft in height) go up in flames, along with the characters played by lead pair Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone.
Considered one the high points of the blockbusting film, this set took 20 days to build with barely four days of shooting. "It cost Rs 80 lakh alone from the total outlay of Rs 9 crore for the entire 60 sets of OSO," says Sabu. The film was reportedly area
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