The filmmaker and his team will head to Italy and France among other places, on January 18, for recce of his next directorial, a period saga set in the Mughal era
Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 7, 2020)

Mirror had previously reported (August 8) that Karan Johar’s much-awaited period-saga, Takht, will go on the floors in March. At the time, the filmmaker was giving finishing touches to the script. Now, we have learnt that the script is locked and KJo is currently on a recce in Jaisalmer. As per plan, the film will go on the floors in March.

According to a source close to the development, the director and his production team have made several visits to the shooting spots in the past. “Karan, along with cinematographer Mitesh Mirchandani, National Award-winning art-director Sabu Cyril and his assistant directors will be in the desert city for the next five days to extensively analyse the locations and plan the cinematography and set designs,” revealed the source.

After Jaisalmer, KJo and his team will fly to several European locations, including Italy and France, on January 18 for another round of recce. “He’d always planned to spend January on the final round of recce and will be exploring locations similar to the landscape of Rajasthan in countries across Europe. Massive sets will be erected everywhere—from Jaisalmer to Europe—for which a mammoth budget has been earmarked,” the source added. As of now, the action scenes as well as the costumes have been locked for the film, which will also have battle sequences.

KJo has earlier described his upcoming directorial as the “epic battle for the majestic Mughal throne”. It’s a tale of two warring brothers, based on the fight for the throne between Shah Jahan’s two sons, Aurangzeb and Dara Shukoh (played by Ranveer Singh and Vicky Kaushal). The film also features Kareena Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Janhvi Kapoor and Bhumi Pednekar in pivotal roles, with Anil Kapoor as the Mughal patriarch, Shah Jahan. “There will be some workshops in February with the entire cast to get a sense of their characters before moving on to the epic battle,” the source signed off.

The film will be shot in a start to finish schedule and is targeting a 2021 release.

Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 23, 2019)

Prabhas and Shraddha Kapoor’s Saaho was shot in Austria, Abu Dhabi, Italy and India. But to showcase the multiple action sequences for this futuristic, action-packed thriller, and to give the film its USP, National Award-winning art director Sabu Cyril and assistant production designer Sowmya Chakravarthula (both on the right) built a model city. It was named Wazi and enhanced with special effects.

The brief from director Sujeeth was something “larger-than-life yet real” which the reel-life baddies, Jackie Shroff, Mahesh Manjrekar, Chunky Pandey and Neil Nitin Mukesh, inhabited. More than 100 sets were built over a year, as the city came to life at Ramoji Rao Film City in Hyderabad with the design team working 12 to 15 hours a day. Since the idea was to come up with a city the likes of which no one has seen before, the duo couldn’t source anything from the market. Some outdoor shots were taken in Abu Dhabi and the challenge here too was to make the city look different. The art department was the biggest team with 50-60 people working on the Bhushan Kumar, Pramod Uppalapati and Vamsi Krishna Reddy production. Now, Sabu and Sowmya give us a tour of Wazi:


City of gold

The gold dome establishes the concept of a badass city where all the powerful people congregate to close deals. The model dome, magnified by VFX, reflects the director and art team’s vision.


Custom-designed trucks of destruction

We had a series of meetings with action director Kenny Bates who explained how the truck is used in a particular scene to knock over cars on a street. Working with sketches of the concept design and a 3D model, around 30 people custom-designed a truck in Abu Dhabi within a fortnight. The bumper was a combo of 12 mm steel and clay while the body was made of fiber and painted black. What you see on screen in the live-action scene is a strong truck bumping into the cars on the street.


3D guns and bombs from e-waste

Prabhas and Shraddha, who play cops, used real guns sourced from Mumbai, with other weaponery that came out of an art shop, including a gun which was designed using the 3D printing technique. Smoke bombs and grenades were made from e-waste, plastic, glass, fiber, paper and cardboard, among other things. The art department was always the biggest team in Saaho with at least 50 to 60 people working on it every day.


Boardroom for the bad men

This is where the big gangsters meet. The personality of the actors, including Jackie Shroff, and a certain set of colours and tone were kept in mind.

…and cars and bikes

The cars you see on screen have their interiors and exteriors modified using techno gadgets. Likewise, the bike (pictured), which is in shades of black and red with red-blue lights. The vehicles also have stickers.

Touted to have been built over two years and on a budget of Rs 65 crore, here's how production designer Sabu Cyril created fictional city for Prabhas' Saaho
Upala KBR (MID-DAY; July 27, 2019)

Besides marking Prabhas' return to the big screen since Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017), Saaho has been keenly awaited as it is touted to be the most expensive Indian film so far. While the teaser has given cinephiles a peek into the larger-than-life world envisioned by director Sujeeth, sources suggest that it apparently took two years and Rs 65 crore for production designer Sabu Cyril to create the universe of the Shraddha Kapoor-starrer.

A source from the creative team reveals that the National Award-winning production designer took eight trips to Abu Dhabi in order to create a visual replica of the desert emirate. "Prabhas was keen on roping in Sabu Cyril (right) as he had done a great job with the sets of Baahubali. Taking a cue from the makers of the Batman series who have created Gotham city, the director and Cyril designed a fictional city, modelled on Abu Dhabi. Cyril and Sujeeth hand-picked a team of 300 artistes, including visual effects artistes and digital compositors, for the task. With the skyline of the UAE capital serving as the blueprint, Cyril and the VFX team gave it a futuristic spin by way of spiral-designed buildings and neo-futurist architectural structures. The interiors were built from scratch by Cyril in Hyderabad."

The source adds that Sujeeth left no stone unturned in bringing the best international technicians on board. "Special effects supervisor Danilo Bollettini, who has previously worked on Wonder Woman (2017) and Avengers: Age Of Ultron (2015), is attached to the project. VFX supervisor Kamalakannan and his 20-member team were specially roped in at Prabhas' behest. The production itself has cost Rs 65 crore."

Excited about his latest creation, Cyril says, "Our movies have never seen something like this. We recreated this set-up in Abu Dhabi because of geographical availability and advantages in a bigger space. It took us a lot of time, but we needed it to be as close to perfection and believability as possible."

Before big-budget war drama Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham rolls, Priyadarshan undeterred by comparisons with Aamir Khan's Thugs of Hindostan
Upala KBR (MID-DAY; November 21, 2018)

Priyadarshan's ambitious trilingual, Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham (Marakkar - The Lion Of Arabian Sea), rolls on December 3 at Ramoji Rao Studios in Hyderabad. Featuring Mohanlal, Suniel Shetty and Manju Warrier in pivotal roles, the historical revolves around Kunhali Marakkar, the famous naval chief of the Zamorin of Calicut.

Said to be mounted on a budget of over Rs 100 crore, the film will have extensive sea warfare sequences in keeping with the theme of the film. One can't help but draw parallels with Thugs Of Hindostan, which revolved around pirates fighting for freedom from the British Raj.

While the Amitabh Bachchan-Aamir Khan starrer may have bitten the dust, Priyadarshan is undeterred in his retelling of the 16th Century hero. "Thugs is a fantasy film, but Marakkar is steeped in history," he says.

In his bid to be authentic to the subject, the director made production designer Sabu Cyril build four ships in the Hyderabad studio. "During those times, Indians would use ships made in Egypt as part of their barter system. So we built four similar life-size ships, boasting 200x200 metre tank, in Ramoji Rao Film City. We also roped in action directors from Thailand to teach sword-fighting to the stars."

The director admits to being nervous as he gets ready to helm his "dream project". "This is the first time I am shivering before starting a film because it is easy to write a story on paper, but bringing it alive on screen is a challenge. We also have to be prepared to handle the war and VFX sequences. This is where some of the Hindi films look tacky."

The film marks the debut of Mohanlal's son Pranav and Priyadarshan's daughter Kalyani.

Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; November 3, 2017)

For all those who were awed by the majestic entrance to the palace of Mahishmati or by the architecture of the Kunthala kingdom, you can now be a part of the world of Baahubali. The lavish sets of S S Rajamouli’s blockbuster franchise have now been turned into a tourist attraction at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad. Sprawled over 100 acres of land, the spot has been opened for the public to get a first- hand experience of the grandeur of the sets.

An official of Ramoji Film City tells mid-day, “A cumulative of over Rs 60 crore was spent on creating the sets of the film over two parts. Besides the set, some props too have been retained for visitors to see. We have many film students, cinema lovers and even general public visiting us. At the moment, it’s the spot that is attracting maximum tourists for us.”

With larger-than-life sets designed by National Award winner Sabu Cyril, the two films had won much acclaim for its production design. “In Baahubali: The Beginning, you got to see mainly the outer part of the kingdom, but the real Mahishmati was unraveled in Baahubali: The Conclusion. The preproduction team had made 1500 sketches, in view of which the film was later shot,” the official adds.

The packages on offer include a general tour priced at Rs 1250 and premier tours priced at Rs 4000. There are special packages for corporate entities, schools and colleges.

The film’s producer Shobu Yarlagadda is elated by the response to the idea. “The officials at Ramoji approached us with the idea and we were happy to oblige. It took us months to create the set and we were anyway planning to retain the set for later use. What better than to feel that we’ve created something for posterity!”

On being probed if the producers are charging a share of the money made from the tours, he says, “We work with Ramoji on a regular basis. There need not be a monetary arrangement between us. Our relationship goes beyond that.”