Hawaizaada may have crash landed at the box office but Shivkar Babuji Talpade, the Indian scientist who built the world's first airplane, remains close to the hearts of art directors Amit Ray and Subrata Chakraborthy. The duo spent the past one-and-a-half years watching documentaries on Leonardo Da Vinci and reading up on the jewel-obsessed Maharaja of Bhuj before they sculpted aeroplanes in varies sizes, from 12 to 80 feet tall, for the period drama. Debutant director Vibhu Puri was tough to please and Amit whose repertoire boasts of films like Haider, Gulaab Gang, Dedh Ishqiya and Rang De Basanti, created over 100-miniature planes, an entire ship hanger with wooden interiors and three life-size aeroplanes for him. "I had last built a plane for Vishal Bharadwaj's Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola in 2012. Vibhu was far more demanding," he admits. "He made it clear that I had to create a world of fantasy. Shivkar was obsessive and I kept that in mind. Over 90 per cent of everything he works with in the film is a miniature model. We also kept the pre-Independence period in mind and gave the film an era-appropriate vintage feel. I was constantly making changes on the set," he says.

The director had also made it clear that he did not want resources to be wasted as the art budget was limited. "We used a lot of brass. An entire side panel of the ship that was 130 feet x 80 feet high, had an intricate ornamental design which took a lot of manpower," says Amit.

The art director who is currently designing the sets of Abhishek Chaubey's Udta Punjab and Nikhil Advani's Katti Batti, recalls that nobody seemed to agree upon the right colour for the ship's anchor.

"The director of photography, lightman, stuntman, everybody disagreed with the shade I had selected. Even Vibhu didn't seem convinced. Since the director is the captain of the ship, I left it to him and he finalised a particular shade of green which we named 'Vibhu Green' so that there was no confusion," he laughs.

Infact, a lot of colours were referred to with the prefix 'Vibhu' added to them, to avoid any mistakes after approval from the director. In another sequence, Ayushmann Khurrana is seen flying the first version of the plane over the sea when it bursts into flames mid-air. Amit reveals that three versions of the plane were build for that particular sequence. "We built one 80 feet x 22 feet sized plane for the action sequence. It was completely detachable and we filmed it at Juhu beach. Everyone was satisfied with the shot, but I cringed when the plane blew up," he recalls. As he saw his handcrafted plane burn to ashes, sadness crept on him. "But that is what filmmaking is all about," he concludes.