A vintage era comes alive for Upendra’s Kabzaa

For filmmaker R Chandru, his next, Kabzaa, which has Upendra in the lead, is his most ambitious project till date. Shooting for the pan-Indian film, which boasts a massive ensemble cast, had recently resumed, on sets that have been specifically erected for the film. “Kabzaa is an underworld story spanning the time period between 1946 and 1984. We are currently shooting the early portions — 1946-1960 — for which we have put up a few sets at a location in Bengaluru.We hired the location for three months, and spent close to a month to put up the sets, which include a jail, a garage, roads, etc. We have been shooting here and will continue till April 30,” explains Chandru.
The director adds, “The hero of our schedule is, no doubt, art director Shivakumar. He has brought to life the vision that I had for this film. We have a 25-30 member strong direction team that is assisting him in maintaining the retro greyish-black colour tone for this portion of the film. And although Upendra had been briefed about the work entailed in recreating that era, he was astounded when he came on set and saw how realistic everything looked and felt, including the vintage vehicles, which are being ferried to and from the location in special trucks.”