‘Designing Ranveer Singh’s throne in 'Padmaavat' was the toughest’

Ever since the Karni Sena issued threats to 'Padmaavat', 65-year-old Sobha Roy has been offering prayers daily at her Dumdum residence. Her 42-year-old son Amit Roy, along with Subrata Chakraborty, has done the production design of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 'Padmaavat'. Finally on Wednesday, senior Roy heaved a sigh of relief. The film released. If Kolkata is going ga-ga over Sudeep Chatterjee’s cinematography, Amit’s friends from The Indian College of Arts and Draftsmanship and Subrata’s professors at Rabindra Bharati have been praising the spectacular set built on a budget of Rs 41 crore.Subrata’s family in Jhargram is also relaxed now. Tension had mounted ever since 'Padmaavat' had trouble at the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). While Prasoon Joshi watched Bhansali’s film, Subrata’s mother Lipika was busy praying that he allows the film to go uncut. “Even three days back, my in-laws called up from Jhargram asking if I was OK. Today, they are breathing a sigh of relief,” said Subrata.If 'Padmaavat' controversy gave sleepless nights, the bigger tension was when 20 odd days ago, the duo had returned to design the sets of 'Super 30' in Rajasthan. It was like returning to the lion’s den when Rajasthan was burning. Even now, some 200 people from their team is still working there. “We went there to construct the sets of Hrithik’s film. But we didn’t fret since we have faced bigger challenges while working with art director Samir Chanda. We had shot ‘Haider’ in Kashmir. That was tough,” Subrata said.The duo dismiss the fringe group’s threats as “much ado about nothing”. “If they Karni Sena attacks us, at least a team of 600 technicians will stand up to protect us. If one of them slaps me, I will slap him twice. I am from Dumdum and have been the general secretary of my art college. I will not accept their nonsense,” Amit said.Thankfully, nothing of that sort has happened as yet and life has been smooth for the duo who have done the production design for 25 films including 'Rangoon', 'Project 24' and 'Udta Punjab'. Though some have drawn a similarity of the sets of 'Padmaavat' with that of 'Bajirao Mastani', the duo insist their work is different. “Our work is realistic while the other is fantasy. Approximately, 90% of the film was shot in our set in Mumbai,” Subrata saidThe duo work with a team that has three Bengali assistants - Abhijit Ghosh, Rupam Pal and Pallav Chanda. On being asked about the professional biggest challenge on the Bhansali film, both insist it is the recreation of a forest where Deepika first meets Shahid in Sri Lanka. Recreating Ranveer Singh’s tent was difficult too since there were no references available. But the toughest was to create a throne for Ranveer. “Nothing we designed satisfied us. Finally, we bought a log and cut it to make a throne to get an uncut look. Sanjay Sir was so happy with it that he has kept it in his office as a memento.”