HYDERABAD: If the leather armour of the dashing Ram Charan Teja in swashbuckling prince ‘avtaar’ has caught your eye in the promos of semi-periodical flick ‘Magadheera’, it is part of the magic worked out by art director S. Ravindar.
Apart from labouring to create the film’s sets, he racked his creative brains to design the chariot, arms, armour and helmet of hero, villain, horses and other characters in the film. The sets of the film apparently cost a staggering Rs.6 crore.
Mood-elevating
If there is something that could better characterise the 31-year-old art director is his itch to execute every assignment without blemish. “I feel sets should not distract the audiences, but help elevate the mood of a film. Realistic sets help director narrate a film more effortlessly,” he remarks. Luckily for him, “I worked with good directors who gave a lot of freedom.”
Ravindar is the one behind the sets of ‘Aithe’, ‘Morning Raga’, ‘Chatrapati’ (for which he created a 2.5 acre fisherman village set), ‘Okkadunnadu’, ‘Vikramarkudu’, ‘Rakhi’ (recreated an 1803 German loco engine from scrap material), ‘Amma Cheppindi’ (space station), ‘Ashta Chamma’, ‘Anukokunda Oka Roju’, ‘Prayanam’, and now ‘Magadheera’.
He is also working on an international project, ‘Bhopal: A prayer for rain’ based on the infamous Bhopal gas tragedy for which he created a rustic factory and slum set in Bollarum at a cost of Rs.1.4 crore.
Born and brought up in Nellore, he did his bachelors in fine arts from JNTU, Hyderabad, before heading to IIT-Delhi for Masters in designing course. After dabbling in software and web-designing for a brief while “to earn my daily bread” he forayed into tinsel world with ‘Amrutham’ serial.
About ‘Magadheera’: “It is a nice film with a lot of scope for art department. As some portions of the film date back to 400 years about whose culture we don’t have many references, we had to use our imagination when designing the sets. Every scene was challenging.”
Nudge him about the plot and he remarks shrewdly, “I don’t want to reveal anything now.”Surprisingly, he watches few films. “I don’t have the patience to watch films.” What about the films he has been involved? “Just once,” he replies.
-Hindu
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