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| Art Director Ravinder |
I saw art director S. Ravindar's name in aithe, Chatrapathi, and some more films, but it wasn't until Magadheera started that I wondered who the chap was and how was that I missed to know someone who was chosen by none other than the meticulous director Rajamouli to handle the art department in a magnum opus such as this one! When the film was released, nearly everyone in the audience appreciated the technical richness the film had to offer! That was when I called him and spoke briefly and he agreed to do an interview for TeluguCinema.Com. Soon after I saw the film the second day due to delay in overseas prints dispatch like always, I called Ravindar right away. He was busy with something and agreed to talk later in the night for the interview. Presented here are the details the art director S. Ravindar has got to share with our viewers.
Sri: Let us hear about the response for your work in the film first.
Ravindar: Right now, I'm on cloud nine, as everyone is praising and aknowledging the art work in the film. I am glad I did the project and I should thank Rajamouli for giving me the great opportunity.
Sri: How did your journey into films start?
Ravindar: My father is a DPO and he's interested in arts too, and I was interested in drawing ever since I was a child. My EAMCET rank was 3844 and we are talking about a time when that rank wouldn't get me a seat in engineering. I thus joined JNTU College of Fine Arts in Painting.
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| Ramacharan |
Sri: Was your family reluctant about your career option being in Arts?
Ravindar: They didn't initially agree, but I could convince them before I joined. I later did my Master of Design from IIT-Delhi and got selected in a campus interview. I was not, however, interested in the job and I came back to Hyderabad. I started working in a part-time job. I also took up freelance website developing and thus designed websites for many firms including Intelligroup, Sirinova, and so on. That was when I came across a newspaper ad for Art Director position at Just Yellow Productions firm, and I applied for it, got selected, and I joined the production house thus.
Sri: Did you start working for their films right away?
Ravindar: No, I worked for the popular serial Amrutham and I became friends with Senthil, Kalyani Mallik, Chandrashekar Yeleti, and Rama Rajamouli there, as I became a part of their team. It didn't give me chance to work for films yet, but I worked for the serial anyway.
Sri: And, how did you take the spin into films?
Ravindar: Kalyani Mallik brought me into films. I was in my room one day when Kalyani Mallik came and asked what I was doing. When I told him that I was planning to go back to my town, he asked me if I'd be interested in working for Chandu's (Chandrasekhar Yeleti's) film as the Art Director. I didn't know if he was serious or joking - he can keep his expressions under wraps, sure! - but I said I'd be glad to do it. He informed that I might not get paid and I said I am not bothered about it as doing Chandu's film was satisfying in itself. He called Chandu right away and asked if he'd be interested in taking me in, and Chandu said he'd be more than happy to make me a part of team. I went and saw what was already available in set property at that stage. Just one thing - a requirement for bomb - was listed therein. I then went through the script and listed down everything but I wasn't sure if Gangaraju gaaru would accept everything in the list. I showed it to him anyway and waited tensely, but to my relief, he approved everything without a single word! That was my first mark of success! Senthil already worked as an assistant to others before Aithe..! but I am a total first-timer who never worked with anyone before. ...The film was released after all the work, and I was noticed.
Sri: So, you started getting offers because of Aithe..!?
Ravindar: After Aithe..!, I did Morning Raaga for Prakash (son of K. Raghavendra Rao). Then, I worked for Sye, Chatrapathi, Anukokunda Oka Roju, Okkadunnaadu, Raakhi, and more followed...
Sri: Is there a particular reason that you didn't work for Yamadonga?
Ravindar: I was doing Okkadunnaadu and Raakhi at the same time, and I felt I might not be able to do justice for the project as I was too busy with both projects already in hand. I told them the same thing and thus was not a part of the project.
Sri: Art directors used to take care of costumes too, in olden days. How different is it now?
Ravindar: Those days were different... But, for Magadheera, I designed the costumes along with Rama to match the period/folkloric backdrop. I designed the armors,the head-guards,the shields, the crowns,the swords and the spears for all the characters in the movie.
Sri: How did you work with the costume designer and director in the project?
Ravindar: Actually, even before we started the shoot, we underwent lot of research and then sat together and worked on various aspects of the costumes, the colors, and also how it all blends with the drama of the film, etc. so that there would be no confusion about it.
Sri: What's the inspiration for the film's settings?
Ravindar: When we discussed about the film, I (Nandi, Senthil, Rama , sat together ) drew my ideas on paper. Special effects' Kanal Kannan , Firefly creative studio and Efx and Edle who is an iraqi came along and sat with us too. As Edle is not familiar with Indian architecture, we sent him reference books on that. He then came to India and we all sat together and discussed about the ideas. Then, work started on the sets in Ramoji Film City (RFC).
Sri: The sets are usually done using Plaster of Paris or wood. The sets in the film don't seem like they're made of such material...
Ravindar: True, we did it all with plywood. It cost us a little more but that difference in cost shows up on the screen richly too.
Sri: How did you handle the quicksand episode?
Ravindar: That was one of the toughest things. We thought of using sesame seeds or mustard seeds for it, but such large quantities would be tough to put up with and it'd not even give the right effect at the end. We required something that looked like real sand and not something artificial, and thus we started calling all the grocery shops nearby where I stayed (we were in Rajasthan then). We thought sesame might be cheap there, since they grow a lot of sesame in Rajasthan. I then got the idea of thermacol balls, but I was not sure if it'd work. We thought of experimenting with that. For sand dunes like in a desert, we needed four times the amount of material that looks exactly same but with the different volume/weight. So if we have air, only light ones will be blown first and can bring a sand dune look. Also, the chariot will not go down really in that and it had to be stopped in the middle. We then got the minute thermacol balls manufacured in four different sizes and applied different clrs to them and then zeeroed in for one particular size and used chemical for binding the balls for them to gain some weight. For testing purposes, we used Geetha Arts Studio that Bunny (Allu Arjun) uses for his dance practice. We made a hole therein and tested our idea there. It worked really well, and we implemented the same in RFC finally.
