Gladiator sets designed in India .
Mo
pleasing to the eye ..
timesofindia.com March 27
Rebuilding Rome, the Indian way
www.timesofindia.com
NEW DELHI: A Rome built with props from Jodhpuri chests and Hyderabadi
saris, Gladiator winner of five Oscars, including best costume design,
is riddled with India.
The Indian influence in the film lies in the dried flowers floating
into the Colosseum, the obelisks in the arena, the curly bearded
busts, the statues at every corner, the fountain in the town square,
the Jodhpuri chests, the shields and the braces of brass lamps smoking
light and shadow. And what of the saris? They're in every other frame
in different avatars, but the most telltale one is a scene where
Lucilla, the emperor's sister, wears silk robes with paisleys on them.
From Hyderabad, of course.
From the might of the Colosseum to the last phallic obelisk, the
Gladiator recreates ancient Rome in all her majesty. Film critics have
been going nuts about the perfect atmospherics and the dazzling sets.
Large chunks of these sets are not from Dreamwork's fancy Hollywood
studio, but right here in India. In what turned to be an accidental
designing coup, a Mumbai-based art-decorator firm, Nitish Roy
Associates, was hired to design portions of the sets for this
recreation of the Roman empire, circa 180 AD.
The offer to prop up the 'Gladiator' came like a bolt from the blue;
Roy and his partner Sunil Pillai got a call in January 1999 from an
old friend Crispan Sallis, who had been hired as art decorator for
'Gladiator' to replace the existing one who had made a hash of things
and run through most of the budget.
Earlier in an interview to The Times of India, Pillai recalled,
``Crispan called us and said, ``I have no time and almost no money.
You have to help me.'' It was an order they couldn't refuse. Also, one
does not refuse a Ridley Scott film.
Sallis put down the phone and took the next flight to Mumbai. Then,
the fun started. ``We didn't build Rome in a day, but we certainly
built chunks of it in six weeks,'' says Pillai. ``Getting the sets
ready was only one part, we had to also ship the stuff to Malta and
Morocco where the film was being shot. Believe me, we went mad.''
Sallis spent 12 whirlwind days in India and took 30 flights around the
country. Pillai and he first went to Timmapur outside Hyderabad, where
the company's workshop is located. Sallis bought 100-odd books on the
Roman Empire for the artists to copy from. He drew rapid sketches and
placed even more rapid-fire orders for Ionic columns, urns, obelisks,
vases, shields, a massive bed for Emperor Commodus, thrones, marble
busts, statues, fountains, shop fronts - the whole imperial caboodle.
While the artists sweated it out to meet the impossible deadline,
Sallis went on a crazy shopping spree in Hyderabad.
``He wanted to buy saris for the sets,'' says Pillai, ``to use for the
tents and curtains and robes. So, we went to a sari shop and he asked
the owner, how many saris in your shop?''
``About 700,''said the shopkeeper.
Crispan bought the whole shop.
Then he went and bought up four more sari shops. The shopkeepers were
in shock. Finally, they concluded that this was just another mad
foreigner.
To the delight of Hyderabadis, the mad foreigner did not stop at
saris. He bought two tonnes of dried flowers and leaves (confirming
local opinion that he was loco), about a hundred charpoys and sackfuls
of jute.
Next stop, Jaipur, where truckloads of furniture, chests and brass
lamps were snapped up.
Ditto in Jodhpur. In Delhi, the drapery was organised, massive bolts
of muslin and satin were bought, tailors hired and the cloth stitched
into billowy curtains and robes and pennants. Almost all the drapery,
and large parts of the wardrobe in the film, can be traced to some
Delhi gully.
After Delhi, Sallis (by now a zombie) flew home. For one week there
was no news from him, and Pillai, who had spent Rs 55 lakh on the
shopping was getting frantic. Finally, Sallis secretary called to say
that he was in hospital suffering from exhaustion and that he was
mumbling deliriously about paying for the saris. Altogether, with the
sets, shipping and shopping, it came to Rs 3 crore.
The sets were shipped to Malta, but again, there was no word from
Sallis. Many distraught phone-calls later, they traced him: he was
back in hospital, this time with a broken pelvis after tumbling off
the sets.
Sallis was in so much pain that they didn't have the heart to ask him
what he thought of their sets. But weeks after the production was
over, Roy and Pillai were still dying to know how their creative
efforts had been received. Did the urns have the right curves? Were
the Ionic proportions right? So one more call to Sallis, who this time
was
playing football.
``Oh, your work was really appreciated,'' he said. ``You don't believe
me? Go and check Ridley Scott's L.A. home. He liked the stuff so much
that he took it back to decorate his house.''
For Roy and Pillai, both potty about Scott (they have a company called
Blade Runner, after Scott's film), it was an epic compliment. (Web
Exclusive)