Touted to have been built over two years and on a budget of Rs 65 crore, here's how production designer Sabu Cyril created fictional city for Prabhas' Saaho.
A still from film Saaho
Besides marking Prabhas' return to the big screen since Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017), Saaho has been keenly awaited as it is touted to be the most expensive Indian film so far. While the teaser has given cinephiles a peek into the larger-than-life world envisioned by director Sujeeth, sources suggest that it apparently took two years and Rs 65 crore for production designer Sabu Cyril to create the universe of the Shraddha Kapoor-starrer.
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A source from the creative team reveals that the National Award-winning production designer took eight trips to Abu Dhabi in order to create a visual replica of the desert emirate. "Prabhas was keen on roping in Sabu Cyril as he had done a great job with the sets of Baahubali. Taking a cue from the makers of the Batman series who have created Gotham city, the director and Cyril designed a fictional city, modelled on Abu Dhabi. Cyril and Sujeeth hand-picked a team of 300 artistes, including visual effects artistes and digital compositors, for the task. With the skyline of the UAE capital serving as the blueprint, Cyril and the VFX team gave it a futuristic spin by way of spiral-designed buildings and neo-futurist architectural structures. The interiors were built from scratch by Cyril in Hyderabad."
The VFX-designed city as seen in Saaho
The source adds that Sujeeth left no stone unturned in bringing the best international technicians on board. "Special effects supervisor Danilo Bollettini, who has previously worked on Wonder Woman (2017) and Avengers: Age Of Ultron (2015), is attached to the project. VFX supervisor Kamalakannan and his 20-member team were specially roped in at Prabhas' behest. The production itself has cost Rs 65 crore."
Also read: Did you know about the different kinds of action sequences Saaho is set to offer?
Sabu Cyril
Excited about his latest creation, Cyril says, "Our movies have never seen something like this. We recreated this set-up in Abu Dhabi because of geographical availability and advantages in a bigger space. It took us a lot of time, but we needed it to be as close to perfection and believability as possible."
Also read: Saaho's latest poster featuring Prabhas and Shraddha Kapoor has loads of action
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