The heat is on! It’s scorching hot inside the Bigg Boss Kannada Season 4 house this time. As the excitement builds up around Bigg Boss Kannada, there’s also a sense of intrigue into the making of the house. We speak to Shyam Bhatia, the young and dapper architect and set designer on the interiors and unique features of the famed house.
The new season that kickstarted on Sunday hosted by actor Kichcha Sudeep is already a talking point with Bengalureans. Shyam shares what it takes to get creative behind the scenes of many big film, television and ad film projects that he has executed.
Among the shows are Indian Idol, Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar, Dance India Dance, DID Lil Masters, Big Boss 4 — which won Gold awards, Chak Dhoom Dhoom, Chote Miyan, Raju Hazir Ho, Mission Ustaad Finale, Chotte Ustaad, Zor Ka Jhatka, Zee Rishtey Awards, India’s Got Talent, Foot Loose, Saregamapa, Bigg Boss Hindi 5, MasterChef and many others.
He has left no stones unturned in creating this Bigg Boss house at Innovative Film City near Bidadi in Bengaluru from scratch, adding his touch of finesse and quirk. Known to be outlandish with his out of the box creations, Shyam, an architect from the Academy of Architecture shares of his fruits of labour, “I’ve always been a thinker who likes to visualise and wonder how things would be if done differently. My first project was Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar, followed by designing the Indian Idol sets and after many projects, I worked on Bigg Boss Hindi. I had taken over from national award winning stalwarts and had a big challenge and responsibility in front of me. I knew that I didn’t want it like any normal house. That’s what I’ve done in the Bigg Boss Kannada house in Bidadi too, which is unique in every aspect.”
He built the house from scratch last year. Talking of the house that gives an insight into the daily lives of Kannada celebrities and what’s different this year, Shyam says, “I decided to take up the challenge creating something different in Bidadi from what I had created in Lonavala. We demolished a golf course and set up a swimming pool in 11 days. This year again, we demolished the house and have built a new 18,000 sq ft one with lots of green space at the entrance, that continues inside with green walls and plants and a gym area. I’ve brought in a caravan inside the house, which is the confession room, created from a vanity van. The centre seating holds a large 14 feet big lamp. The new elements this time are the barbeque area and a bed inside the toilet. When I suggested this to the team, they laughed. Everytime people laugh at my ideas, I get even more inspired and I nail it every single time. Later people fall in love with it. I’m sure this season, the bed in the rest room will be used to the maximum for all the fresh gossip. There are yellow conical tables for dining area and cloth on walls instead of paintings, pink sofa and a jacuzzi too. There’s also a 22 ft length backbone line seating that has various curvatures for easy seating. We took about a month to design the space and a month to execute it, along with a team of 200 people working tirelessly day and night.”
The ace architect has also worked with Rakesh Roshan (for Krissh), Shyam Benegal (for Netaji: The last Hero), Samir Karnik (for Kyun Ho Gaya Na) and many other projects. “I’m currently working on swanky farmhouses in Kerala and Bengaluru,” states Shyam who has completed over 250 big projects at such a young age.
And when he’s not working, he adds, “Travel is my passion as that’s where I can introspect and get inspired. I’ve been across UK, Africa, Middle East and have also designed wrestling arenas for WWE and TNA. It was also fun creating a Hrithik Roshan’s house in Manali. We made a new house and gave it the look of a 50-year-old house. For Kyun Ho Gaya Na, where Amitabh Bachchan shot, we took Dr Rajkumar’s house in Coorg and designed a new one around it for the film sets.”
