“Every day is war footing,” says acclaimed art director, Sabu Cyril. The National film award winner, who has been involved in grand productions like Ra.One, Om Shanti Om, Thenmavin Kombath and Enthiran , is about to start work on the second installment on his most recent venture, Baahubali.
Cyril doesn’t divulge much about the film — he specifically says he won’t reveal why Kattappa kills the title character — but he tells us that the sets for the climax already exist and also that parts from the second film, which require the first film’s sets, have already been shot. He also adds that the project is massive and time consuming. “I’ll start work from November. I’m already having sleepless nights.”
The scenic setting surrounding grand mountains, the intricate work in the props that don the opulent palaces and all the other larger-than-life visuals of the first installment only have fans expecting more from the sequel. However, he says he knew what he was getting into, and did so whole-heartedly. “I thought we should elevate our standard of work and that the scale of this film was on par with a Hollywood venture. When the producer is willing to spend and the director has a vision, then we should do our best.”
With a career that spans two decades and many awards and accolades attached to his name, how is it working on a venture that, with the advent of technology, shows how the role of an art director has changed? “The uses of advanced visual effects have contributed to the job of an art director, by making the work easier. They are taking the work to a level we are unable to — a 45-feet set, for example, is easily made to look like it’s 100 feet. Why should we spend money to create nearly impossible sets when it can be done using computer graphics?”
Even though he says there wasn’t much time to do anything else while working on Bahubaali 2 , he is still working on an upcoming Ajay Devgan starrer. Also, he has just finish designing the sets for IFFI 2015; the 46th International Film Festival of India, to be held in Goa in November. “They called me from the I&B ministry saying they’d like me to do the designing this year; I took it as a challenge.” He’s stylised the peacock motif that’s been carried over the years, created the stage for the opening day on November 20 and the ambience for the closing ceremony, to be held ten days later. Yet, he’s only visited IFFI once in the past, that too when he was in the city shooting for a film, because, he laughs, “I don’t even get a chance to see my own films.”
After a month of work, and three visits to Goa, he says is done with the entire project. Sounds like a lot of travel, doesn’t it? “I travel every second day. The day before, I was in Chennai. This morning, I was in Hyderabad and now, I am in Mumbai.” Like he says, it’s war footing every day.
