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| Chariot |
Sri: The Bhairava Kona set looks too very good! How did you work on that?
Ravindar: That's another huge city in RFC. We constructed a 42-feet statue of Lord Shiva and also created the stone structures in and around the Bhairava kona. The valleys and other backgrounds are all in CG (Computer Graphics) work. By the way, the helicopter we used for the movie was not a real helicopter - our department built it too!
Sri: Oh! You could have hired a helicopter right? Why did you build one?
Ravindar: At the time we were shooting those scenes, helicopters were in huge demand as the elections season was on. Also, initially we didn't plan so many scenes with a helicopter originally. We thus thought of doing a small model of it and work with that, and that's how I ended up doing it in-house. Once it was done, Nandi wanted it to be painted in blue, but I asked his opinion a second time just before I painted it, suggesting white color instead. After thinking a lot, he agreed to that and then planned some more scenes to go with it. Nandi took such care about that helicopter that he gave gloves to all the crew members who are handling that scene so that we don't touch it and form spots on it before shooting.
Sri: What about the scene where hero falls off the helicopter into a pond? How was that planned?
Ravindar: We shot that near Nanakramaguda. We took care that the water only looks green like it's mossy, but that it does not harm the hero who'd fall into it. It thus only looks dirty but it's not. The underwater shots were done in RFC again.
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| Village Set |
Sri: What about the chariot in the film?
Ravindar: That's another big story there! After much thought, we made a chariot design. At least one-fifth of the audience get reminded of the chariot in the classic film Ben Hur whenever they think of a chariot. Without wanting to imitate or even remind of it, I designed it with Indian nativity. I later showed the design to the horse-trainer , and he said I cannot go ahead with the design since an uneven chariot can even kill a horse if it's veins are strained and ruptured because of the design! I was shocked and didn't know what to do. Someone then suggested the name of a man who did it in Tamil filmdom for all Rajinikant's films, and he had been in the field for over 30 years too. We sent the design to him, and we went there after a week. We even had the mould ready, so that we could just fix it once the chariot shapes up like we wanted it, and to go on to Dholavera in Rajasthan for the shoot. To our dismay, he made it entirely different and there was not even a remote resemblance to what we wanted! I didn't know a bit of Tamil, and Kanal Kannan did the talking, but Rajamouli and I were very upset with that all. Having had no choice, we brought it back to Hyderabad. We generally have a fall-back option in such cases as this one, with a backup that's smaller than the original. As we brought back the chariot, our Executive Producer was ready to take it to Dholarey once we fix the mould. We said we'd have it ready by the morning. He sensed we were up to something and left the place without a word. We urgently got four welders and three generators and worked on it the whole night to make it look like what we wanted in the first place, painted it like we wanted too, and gave it all the necessary finishing touches. The second one wasn't ready by the morning, though. We had to do patch work on it even on our way to Dholarey, and we finally got them ready after working some more even after we went there.
Sri: Hmmm... so the race starts in RFC (the arena set at the fort), goes to Dholarey (for the chase), comes back to RFC (quicksand scene), and again goes to Dholarey (return journey), and ends in RFC (arena set)?!
Ravindar: (Laughs ) That's right!
Sri: Did you use any miniature scenes in the movie?
Ravinder: We used miniatures for models but not in the film. Whatever you saw in the film was all done in RFC.
Sri: How much time did you have to spend constructing all that?
Ravindar: we took about three months to constuct the arena. Usually, doors in telugu films are typically made, but we made them look different and gave a different color and design than the routine. Even people at RFC were surprised seeing them!
Sri: A regular complaint is that Rajamouli takes a lot of time and is never easily satisfied. And, he also complains about you...
Ravindar: (Laughs) His complaints are that I too never compromise and I don't get satisfied easily either! One day, he came to RFC to yell at me as the set was delayed. He didn't know what to say when he found me there painting the sets all day, along with three other assistants to get the required finishes.
Sri: Don't you have painters to do such tedious jobs?
Ravindar: We do, but our painter ditched us in the last minute due to some issues with others. In order to complete the work sooner - we were already behind schedules by then - my assistants and I worked for five sleepless days to paint the whole set! after which i got some nose allergy. You should have seen my nose then - it was triple the size after continuously inhaling the strong fumes of paint for so long!
Sri: What are some other things that caused a lot of trouble?
Ravindar: You remember the book which has pictures of Mithravinda, bhairava, Bhilla, etc. (at Ghora's place)? That one took a lot of time as it had to look 400yrs old and it should have pictures that cant be identifiable too. The dust and other tiredness I had to put up with rendered me bed-ridden for four days! (Laughs)
