Director Amole Gupte and team build 12 badminton courts in seven days in the suburbs for Saina Nehwal biopic; shooting scheduled to wrap up in January
Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 25, 2019)

Mirror had earlier reported (October 7) that Parineeti Chopra will kick off the Amole Gupte-directed Saina at a studio in Vasai on October 11. Now, we have learnt that the makers have built 12 sets on the outskirts of the city to recreate the badminton courts from across the globe where Saina Nehwal played key matches of her career. “We have already completed over five court designs. Each court represents a different match, right from Czech Republic to Manila,” Amole informs.

The sets were created by Amit Ray and Subrata Chakraborthy, who have previously worked on Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat and Akshay Kumar’s Kesari. “Amit and Subrata are my dearest friends and have worked with me on Hawaa Hawaai and Sniff. Their experience and wisdom helped widen the vision of Saina. They have created international-looking stadiums. The task is difficult to achieve in a limited time but Amit’s team, especially his art director Bala Patil, have been amazing,” Amole beams.

Amit informs that the sets were created in seven days, adding, “Over a hundred people worked 24/7. Now, we are shooting each match for a couple of days and then working overnight to turn the look around for the next one. It’s like an ant’s colony at work.” The Bhushan Kumar production traces the ascend of the badminton ace to World No 1, traveling across countries and highlighting milestones of her career. The film’s second schedule will wrap up in the next few days. “There’s one more schedule in January and we will be done,” Amole informs.

Nayandeep Rakshit (DNA; October 27, 2018)

Akshay Kumar, along with the entire cast of Housefull 4 — Kriti Sanon, Bobby Deol, Riteish Deshmukh, Pooja Hegde and Kriti Kharbanda — have already completed two schedules of the film, one each in London and Rajasthan. The team kicked off their third schedule in Mumbai a few days ago. And we hear the makers have spent a whopping amount to build the grand sets, where they will shoot the reincarnation scenes.

Says a source from the production, “Producer Sajid Nadiadwala is leaving no stone unturned to make Housefull 4 a visual delight. The two sets that have been erected at the Chitrakoot Ground and Vrindavan Studio in Mumbai have cost him around Rs 20 crore. The film’s overall budget is a sum total of the money that he spent on the other three movies in the franchise.”

Given that the period sequences, which involve a lot of VFX, are yet to be shot there, the art direction team has paid attention to the intricate details. “The set gives you a feel of the yesteryear era, which was seen in the Baahubali franchise. There’s the king’s darbar which has pillars that are as high as 36 feet, long pathways and marble flooring. There are precious stones embedded on the throne and the pillars have fine detailing,” our source tells us.

Sajid gave a clear vision to production designers, Subrata Chakraborty and Amit Ray, who ensured that the sets depicted the period’s grandeur. The source adds, “It can accommodate close to 1,000 people at one go. There are major portions of the past life which will be shot here along with a song, too.”

The team has strict security measures in place. “The makers don’t want the pictures to be leaked because they want to reveal it closer to the film’s promo launch. So, nobody is allowed to carry their phones on the sets,” says the source.

Three HoDs, of production design, costume and cinematography, have quit a few weeks before the film rolls
Natasha Coutinho & Avinash Lohana (MUBMAI MIRROR; May 24, 2016)

The Hindi remake of Srijit Mukherji's Rajkahini, Begum Jaan, featuring Vidya Balan in the lead as the madam of a brothel, which was to kick-start in a fortnight's time has hit a roadblock following a series of unceremonious exits.

A source informed Mirror, "The production team had major budgeting issues, which made many of the crew members sceptical about the project. Three department heads who are big industry names, cinematographer Ravi K Chandran, production designers Amit Ray and Subrata Chakraborty and costume designer Payal Saluja, have quit because the makers were cutting corners."

Trouble started when the film's location was changed from Punjab where the story is set, to Hyderabad, then Rajasthan and finally Kolkata, as the schedule drew closer. "The script is brilliant but the technicians didn't want to compromise on quality. The makers are now looking for replacements at a short notice and meanwhile have started erecting the set in Kolkata from May 17."

Begum Jaan is set in the aftermath of the Partition and focuses on how it affects 11 women who live in a brothel that is suddenly bang in the middle of the newly-chalked Line of Control, with half in India and the other half in Pakistan. This brings an upheaval in the lives of these sex workers who fear that outside these walls they will be torn apart by predators.

Chandran insisted that he had dropped out over date issues while the film's co-producer Vishesh Bhatt told Mirror, "As far as Mr Ravi Chandran is concerned, he left the project due to personal reasons. And for the others, the matter was discussed and evaluated by the production and direction teams. They have taken a decision in the interest of the film and the story. I stand by them."

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.

Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 18, 2015)