No Strings Attached

He is over 60 years old and has spent 46 of those years perfecting,performing,inventing and reinventing the art of puppetry,combined with ventriloquism. The creator of the murderous doll — Tatya Vinchu — in Mahesh Kothare’s 1993 Marathi film Zapatlela,Ramdas Padhye returned after a two decade-hiatus to make the same doll for its sequel,titled Zapatlela 2. This time around,he says designing the doll has become more complex with the advent of modern technology but the fluidity of the designs show on the silver screen. The doll had been one of the main reasons for the movie becoming a sleeper hit in 1993. The sequel,which released last Friday,has also opened to a good response. The highlight being that it has been shot in 3D.

Taking a walk down memory lane,he remembers the summer of 1993 when Kothare pitched the idea. He,along with his wife Aparna,got down to creating the doll. “It was a no-frills,bare-bones affair. A simple foam design,basic levers to control the puppet from top or bottom,and hardly any use of technology. That was how the original Tatya Vinchu came to life,” he says. “Even a simple doll like that teaches us how much life and technologies have changed over the years,” says the second-generation ventriloquist who has teamed up with his wife and son to create the new Tatya Vinchu.

With a foam exterior,a latex-and-rubber interior layer and remote and radio-controlled actuators for more life-like movements,Padhye says it has been a job well done. “No puppets in India have used mechanical movements with animation effects to create a life-like structure. Since Mahesh was doing this film in 3D,we couldn’t let the doll look weak as it had been the selling point of the original film,” he says. Working on its design for over four months,he devoted 40 days just to ensuring that the movements are smooth and life-like. “It took 38 days of non-stop shooting but it was all worth it,” he says.

Technologically also,the doll was a challenge. “The shell was smaller,so we had to put all the modern technologies into that limited place. But the whole purpose of the craft,for 46 years,has been about reinventing. In many ways,Tatya Vinchu gave me that chance again,” he says.