When he first heard the script of the Prabhas-starrer Radhe Shyam, Ravinder Reddy knew the romantic period drama would demand a lot of time and effort. And he was up for the challenge — to recreate Italy.
“More than anything the film is a test of character, and to pull off such a massive project I need to have a great team,” says Ravinder who is the production designer for the film.
The Radha Krishna Kumar directorial is set in 1970’s backdrop in Italy, and it was Prabhas’ idea to shoot in the country. The team did recce for six months in various countries including Italy, Georgia, Budapest, Netherlands, etc., and have zeroed in various locations.
“We believe the art work should compliment and be part of the narrative. Since the story is set in 1970 backdrop we wanted to get the vintage look in every frame,” he says, recalling that Rome (Italy) is called the father of art, and they spent around six months scouting for locations.
Getting locations that have a vintage backdrop in the modern times is challenging. Hence, Ravinder had to build sets that replicate several locations. He had built around 101 sets for the film, including train, railway station, ship, wet market, vintage vehicles, hero and heroine house, hilltop, hospital, cafe, piano, etc.
“We did a lot of R&D to understand what Europe was like during the 1970s. During our recce, we visited various art galleries and exhibitions and collected catalogues, spoke to painters and sculptors, collected magazines, newspapers references to recreate the times,” explains Ravinder.
Talking about the team’s approach to work, he said, “We clearly defined and narrowed down our scope of work and started preparation. That made things a bit easy.”
For the initial schedule of shooting, around Rs 2 crore worth set property was shipped from Hyderabad to Italy. The property includes artefacts, articles, cutlery and crockery, interiors, home appliances, bathroom fittings and accessories, wooden items, chandeliers, curtains, wall hanging, lamps, etc.
“It’s very expensive in Europe to buy these in large quantities, so we decided to buy them in Hyderabad and ship them to Italy, and use them in our film,” he says, adding that around 300 vintage cars, buses and cycles have also been custom-made locally.
The unit had to travel around 300 kms from Rome to transport those vintage cars, buses and cycles. 90 per cent of the film will be shot in a set! It just shows the magnitude of work and detailing that goes into the art work.
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One huge container (40 ft by 12ft) of local flowers (around three thousand bunches) was used and more than three lakh meters of fabric was used for various aspects of design.
“Around 2000 perfume bottles have been brought from various perfume factories in Europe to build a perfume store set. 5000 candles have used just for one romantic scene,” Ravinder beams, adding that around a total of 1200 members have worked for all the sets in the film.
A 432 ft ship set that was built at a private studio in Hyderabad will be one of the highlights of the film. Around 400 crew members worked for three months to construct it.
“Initially we planned to build the ship in Bulgaria or in Germany, but due to logistics problems, we couldn’t go there,” Ravinder said.
The film’s shooting lasted for more than three years thanks to the pandemic, but Ravinder suggests that they indeed needed that time to get the desired look and feel. “If people can make out that it’s a set, then we are a failure. People should say, ‘Wow, is this is a set”? That’s when we are successful,” says Ravinder citing that the level of detailing is the key to such films. “Our whole objective is to transport the audience into the world of Vikramaditya (played by Prabhas) and Prerna’s (Pooja Hegde) Universe.”
Italy was one of the worst affected countries during the first wave of pandemic in April 2020. However, by that time, the unit had already shot a couple of schedules.
“But when we went to Italy to shoot after the first wave it was distressing to see some sorrowful scenes; most of the iconic locations sported a deserted look,” rues Ravinder, adding that the film also showcases Italy’s rich heritage and culture.
