Star Interviews
Exclusive Interview: Art Director Ravinder
By Sri
Aug 15, 2009 - 7:26:59 AM

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.

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.

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.

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)

Palace Set

Sri: Art department generally seems to deal with set properties, paints, right look and such things. Is there more to it, in the context of this film?
Ravinder:  Sure there is a lot! For example, in this film, a trailer shows a scene which had lot of water gushing out of a corridor that's edited out of the movie due to length constraints. There's a scene in which Ghora spits out poisonous needles on to the heroine, and the hero is pinoned to a wall with an arrow through his hand. Srihari then gets up to a high tank of water and blasts it off so that the water deluges the unconscious heroine and the entrapped hero, and the wall that traps the hero by the arrow is demolished in the act. I directed the whole scene myself in a single shot, with 90,000 liters of water! In fact, we didn't even tell the lead pair that so much water would fall since the number is so frightening! That was not about constructing sets but destroying one in a heavy flood of water. Thanks to my assistants and everyone that acted in the scene, we could shoot it well, but the movie was already too lengthy to have some such  important scenes.

Sri: Who were others that worked with you day and night?
Ravindar: Definitely, my assistants come first! Next, it's Rajamouli gaaru. He always used to carry a tape and notebook along with us. The director doesn't need to do it really, but he used to do it. He always took them in his car, keeping them ready for each shot. In the end, he bought an electronic device from USA for about Rs. 70,000 to measure distance. That shows his commitment! Third, it's his assistant Jagadish who made all the action scenes. Jagadish has tons of patience really! He used to make  a note  of all continuity aspects, including the decoration for each horse! Ensuring continuity is not an easy task for such a huge film! We had many extras and junior artistes, and most of them used to leave their costumes wherever they'd change after the shoot. Jagadish used to keep track of them and safely tucked them away, and make them available for the next day's shoot. He also checked with animal trainers and let us know the details. He has amazing patience like his guru Rajamouli. I never saw Rajamouli getting fatigued in shooting, and his assistants are so too!

palace Set

Sri: I heard that you even modified the elephant in the song dheera dheera dheera...?
Ravinder: (Laughs) That's because the elephant looked old and didn't have one of its tusks. We had to make an imitation ivory tusk and fix to it, and we also painted the elephant a little so that it looks young and beautiful.

Sri: Geetha Arts usually pays less, I heard. Are you satisfied with your remuneration, after all the toil?
Ravindar: I am satisfied on the work front - it's once-in-a-lifetime chance, indeed! So, I enjoyed the work and the name I got with this film!

Sri: What are your current projects?
Ravindar: Two films are on the floors. There's a talk in the industry that I am pricey and headstrong. Thus, people who don't know me personally don't generally approach me, but those who know me know that I don't compromise in the quality I deliver and there is nothing which i cannot deliver.

  Edited by: NaChaKi
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