|
Designer Sabu Cyril and Cameraman Randy Speaks about Lingaa
I Built a
Whole Dam For Lingaa - Sabu Cyril
He’s a
four-time National Award winner, yet Sabu Cyril is still
his easy-going, charming self. His unruffled demeanour,
doesn’t reveal he’s recently completed working on a
mammoth film like Lingaa, in record time. Being the
production designer of Endhiran earlier, this is his
second film with Rajnikanth. In a chat with CE, he talks
about the special sets of the film, and observing up
close, the evergreen magic of the superstar.
“Completing a partly period film of Rajnikanth in just
six months, was a high pressure task. But hats off to K
S Ravikumar for putting together a hi-tech team and
pulling it off! For me, it meant that normally a set
that would take a month to execute, I had to complete in
10 days! I had to create a huge dam set and also a
pre-independence train, complete with a station, the two
key pivot points. I’ve done period films like Hey Ram
and currently Baahubali. But Lingaa was completely
different and had many firsts for me,” recalls Sabu.
Sabu created a train set for Tees Maar Khan, but
Lingaa’s train was a challenge, “It’s a train of the
British period which doesn’t exist now. So I had to
research a lot and set up a whole train with the help of
a mechanical engineer. I also had to create an entire
station, in over 20 acres of land outside Ramoji film
city in Hyderabad.” Sabu clears apprehensions about
Computer Graphics, “People may think everything is CG
when they see giant sets on screen. But it’s not so. The
physically interactive areas of the actors, have to be
real. CG can only extend the set. For instance, we
created an entire train. With CG we only added four
bogies, to extend it.”
In another career first, Sabu created an entire dam, in
30 acres, “A normal dam is around 150 feet high. I
created a dam 50 feet high, running for 300 feet! We
made the whole dam around a rainwater catchment area I
found during a recce in Hyderabad. We shot the film in
reverse order because in the short time, we couldn’t
build the dam bit by bit and shoot. So, we shot reverse
sequences and dismantled a little every time.”
Sabu has also recreated the interiors of a Palace for
Lingaa and for the Mona Gasolina song, he made a ship.
Ask him what the title of production designer means and
he clarifies, “My task is to recce for set locations and
conceptualise the set design. I also have to coordinate
the mood, lighting, colors, costumes and shooting time
schedules with the cameraman and director.”
Ask him about working with Rajini twice and Sabu
recounts, “There’s a magic about Rajini, that’s
inexplicable! I’ve learnt how to handle things now,
after watching him at work. He remains unruffled despite
any pressure and lets things happen. And somehow things
fall into place just for him. His energy levels are
amazing. Its no wonder that Amitabh Bachchan has called
him a phenomenon. He’s so humble and doesn’t have any
outward trappings of a superstar of his stature. To be
Rajinikanth and be normal is extremely difficult, but he
manages to do it so effortlessly. He’s a phenomenon
beyond science,” he signs off.
Lingaa
through Randy’s lens
Lingaa (releasing December 12) is probably the shortest
schedule in Rathnavelu’s career. As someone who has
worked with directors (in)famous for protracted shoots
such as Bala (Sethu and Nandha), Gautham Vasudev Menon (Vaaranam
Aayiram) and Shankar (Enthiran), he says Lingaa was a
short but stressful affair. The filming was wrapped up
in less than five months, but there were many tense
moments. “A chunk of the shoot happened in Karnataka
where we had to grapple with fickle weather and natural
light. There were far too many intangibles — heavy rain,
dark clouds, sometimes blazing sunlight, all on a single
day. Shooting near a dam in bad weather wasn’t easy. In
one of the schedules that lasted 31 days, it rained
non-stop for 17 days. The dam was about to breach and
the electrical connections would give us shocks, but we
went ahead. It was a nightmare — bad weather, crowded
location, over a thousand junior artists and crew. But
the silver lining was director K. S. Ravikumar, who had
a clear vision of what he wanted.”
The effort shows in the trailer launched recently. The
story, which spans two eras, has a distinct visual
language. “I wanted to steer clear of clichés. So you
will not see typical black-and-white, sepia or
de-saturated looks for the pre-Independence scenes. In
Lingaa, there’s so much positivity about this time in
history. So I’ve kept it visually vibrant. When the film
swings to the present, the sets turn slick, Rajini is
robust, and his look reminiscent of his 1990s hits. The
introductory song is visually stunning; we shot in Macau
and at Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi.”
Like most cinematographers, Rathnavelu too has turned
director and had started work on his film when he got a
call from the superstar. “I couldn’t say ‘no’ to Rajini,
so I set aside my film for Lingaa. The man’s humility
moves me. He will not step out of the frame till he gets
a proper okay. He will behave as if it’s his first film.
He is willing to learn and trusts the director and
technicians totally. Sadly, this quality is missing in
some established actors and even in the newbies.”
Rathnavelu talks of how cinematographers must keep
abreast with the latest in technology. “Before working
on Enthiran, I read a lot about animatronics and the
making of Jurassic Park because we had to create a 100
Rajini clones. In Enthiran, we made a 1,600-page booklet
enumerating all the angles from which to shoot the two
Rajinis. In Lingaa, we have used technology to visually
extend a dam and multiply the crowd.”
But this tech buff still misses the good old reels. “I
can smell the negatives; they continue to charm me. It
took a long time for me to accept digital photography.
But today, even interns bring CDs or ask us to check out
their short films online,” he smiles.
Previous |
|
Next |
| |