An afternoon with the master Thota Tharani (Part 1)

Rarely does the legendary art director and Padmashree awardee Thota Tarani make a public appearance, beyond the call of duty. So it came as a pleasant surprise when he took the time to address a ‘Master Class’ on ‘Art in Theatre’, recently.


Delineating the difference in working for theatre and film, the two-time National Awardee said, “For theatre, you work in a 2-dimensional environment whereas it’s three-dimensional for films. The sets are basically the same but depth needs to be created for theatre. While the expenses incurred for theatre are far lesser than in films, for the latter, staying within the budget is equally important. As far as lighting is concerned, theatre normally uses front and side lights and occasionally top lights but in films, all three are used.”



He further added, “In theatre, it is important to calculate the distance between the stage and the audience. But the biggest constraint in working for films is ‘time’. You are hardly given any time in films whereas in theatre, there are multiple rehearsals leaving you with enough time at your disposal. For instance, during the film Anjali (1990 Mani Ratnam classic), after scouting for locations in Bombay, Delhi and Kolkata, the makers finally decided to go in for a set. We were informed on the 25th of a particular month that the shooting would begin on the 1st of the next month. We worked for five days with a hundred people and got the set ready in time. It cost us around Rs 5 lakh. But the flats you see in the movie are all sets. There was no apartment culture in those days.”


The thespian also laid down some edicts for aspiring art directors namely; the necessity of what is required on the stage, the practical feel of the set, the lighting requirements and the most important one of all: working in line with the director’s vision and requirements. Emphasising the fact that there was no substitute for ‘experience’ in his line of work, he stressed that ‘observation’ was one quality which every aspirant needed to cultivate. “The majority of my drawings are done from memory. Rarely do I go in for a reference and even then, only if absolutely necessary,” he said and added, “The set we erected for a song in

Sagara Sangamam

was entirely designed from my memory of the hall in Ravindra Bharathi.”