Showing posts with label Amit Ray interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amit Ray interview. Show all posts
It gave us goosebbumps to create Shruti Tandon's room-Subrata Chakraborthy and Amit Ray
7:47 AM
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 16, 2015)
When Production Designers Subrata Chakraborthy and Amit Ray presented their first model of a court to Talvar director Meghna Gulzar, before she rolled with her thriller based on the reallife double-murder of Aarushi Talwar and Hemraj Banjade, she gave it the thumbs down, saying, "Dada, exact banao... real banao." And without any signs of disappointment, the creative duo headed off to Delhi for a recce. "We did not get permission to enter the CBI Court, so we pretended to be students on a research project and walked into the Delhi Court. We even managed to sneak in a few pictures with a hidden camera." Twenty-five days later, when Meghna walked onto the set in Kamalistan Studio, she felt she had walked right into the CBI Court.
They also went on a recce to Ghaziabad to study the Dasna Jail and and recreated it brick by brick in Mumbai. But the biggest challenge during the 60-day pre-production was creating Shruti's room. "It gave us goosebumps," admits Subrata. Aarushi Talwar has metamorphosed into Shruti Tandon in this fictitious narrative.
"We studied graphics of the house published in newspapers for days and even referred to police reports and legal drawings. We had paid special attention to the doors and the design of the house, but when we began constructing our model of the apartment, we couldn't get it right, something was missing," reminisces Amit.
They then visited the real building in Noida and measured the doors from the outside and the distance from the street and ground to ace the dimensions. "We then built a model of the two-bedroom apartment, with an adjacent servant room with a double door. The DOP, Pankaj Kumar, wanted space for movement of his miniature camera model inside our house so we built a bigger model and added lights," says Amit.
Since, they were denied access to the Talwar's Noida house, they studied another apartment in the same building with the same layout. "We measured the distances between the rooms, the walls, ceilings and windows," Subrata recalls.
Two months later, they replicated the house in a Mumbai studio. "But when Irrfan Khan, who plays an investigative officer, walked in, the focus shifted from the set to his performance. He is such a jabardast actor," laughs Subrata.
Like Akira Kurusava's 1950 Japanese film, Rashomon, Talvar presents contradictory accounts of the case, including the parents' version. It was Aarushi's aunt, Vandana Talwar, who launched a campaign to prove the innocence of the Talwars in the murder of their 14-year-old daughter.
Subrata and Amit recall the day Meghna announced 'pack-up' and how heart-wrenching it was to dismantle the entire house and the other smaller sets they had taken weeks to construct. "It reminded us of Haider and Vishal telling us that our work in Kashmir was done. We left our sets in the mountains and headed back to the city with a heavy heart. It was the same feeling all over again," sighs Amit, pointing out Haider released on October 2, exactly a year before Talvar.
Salman Khan Nikhil Advani that art department has done a great job-Amit Ray & Subrata Chakraborthy
7:54 AM
Creating movie magic in the Manali snow
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 2, 2015)
Production designers, Amit Ray and Subrata Chakraborthy, hadn't worked with Nikhil Advani before. In fact, Amit and Subrata were busy with Haider when Hero was offered to them. "I met Nikhil sir to refuse the film but when he saw my portfolio, he was adamant that I do the film," reminisces Amit, admitting that the set in Manali was his biggest challenge.
In the film Sooraj Pancholi and Athiya Shetty flee from Mumbai to hole up in an abandoned house in Manali. The temperature was minus 12 degrees and the location was in a secluded spot in a gorge, 350 feet down the motorway. The designers had taken 12 days to build the one-bedroom-hall-kitchen apartment with a veranda and garage.
Amit remembers that at one point, Nikhil lost his cool because they wouldn't stop working, even during heavy snowfall. "We had to deliver the set on time so we turned a deaf ear to Nikhil sir's orders. He was angry then, but later appreciated that we stuck to our stringent deadline," he smiles. Amit and Subrata who designed the 'Aaj ki party meri taraf se...' set in Bajrangi Bhaijaan impressed Salman Khan who has produced Hero. "We haven't spoken to Bhai but he's told Nikhil sir that the art department has done a great job," beams Subrata.
They built a 'desi daaru bhatti' for a fight sequence as the action director, Ravi Varma wanted to set a fight sequence between Sooraj and Chetan Hansraj in a local brewery. "Ravi was amazed by the final output," exults Amit. And for two songs, sets were created at Filmalaya Studio. One, a Gothicstyle pub and the second, with a theatrefeel. "Most of the film has been shot on the sets and it looks beautiful," asserts Subrata, pointing out that they've been associated with Hero for over a year. They'll be a part of Nikhil's next film as well. "He is completely sorted and knows his job well. We hardly had to make any last minute changes."
Production designers, Amit Ray and Subrata Chakraborthy, hadn't worked with Nikhil Advani before. In fact, Amit and Subrata were busy with Haider when Hero was offered to them. "I met Nikhil sir to refuse the film but when he saw my portfolio, he was adamant that I do the film," reminisces Amit, admitting that the set in Manali was his biggest challenge.
In the film Sooraj Pancholi and Athiya Shetty flee from Mumbai to hole up in an abandoned house in Manali. The temperature was minus 12 degrees and the location was in a secluded spot in a gorge, 350 feet down the motorway. The designers had taken 12 days to build the one-bedroom-hall-kitchen apartment with a veranda and garage.
Amit remembers that at one point, Nikhil lost his cool because they wouldn't stop working, even during heavy snowfall. "We had to deliver the set on time so we turned a deaf ear to Nikhil sir's orders. He was angry then, but later appreciated that we stuck to our stringent deadline," he smiles. Amit and Subrata who designed the 'Aaj ki party meri taraf se...' set in Bajrangi Bhaijaan impressed Salman Khan who has produced Hero. "We haven't spoken to Bhai but he's told Nikhil sir that the art department has done a great job," beams Subrata.
They built a 'desi daaru bhatti' for a fight sequence as the action director, Ravi Varma wanted to set a fight sequence between Sooraj and Chetan Hansraj in a local brewery. "Ravi was amazed by the final output," exults Amit. And for two songs, sets were created at Filmalaya Studio. One, a Gothicstyle pub and the second, with a theatrefeel. "Most of the film has been shot on the sets and it looks beautiful," asserts Subrata, pointing out that they've been associated with Hero for over a year. They'll be a part of Nikhil's next film as well. "He is completely sorted and knows his job well. We hardly had to make any last minute changes."
Everyone was satisfied but I cringed when the plane blew up-Hawaizaada director Amit Ray
7:39 AM
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 18, 2015)
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.
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