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Before it was packaged and streamed for the global audience to laugh, more than three months of intense behind the scenes work were spent to mount the sets of The Great Indian Kapil Show, comedian Kapil Sharma’s latest series. Production designer Varsha Jain has detailed the prep that went into readying the Netflix show, which recently dropped its fifth episode featuring superstar Aamir Khan.
When the series made its debut with the first episode featuring Ranbir Kapoor, his actor mother Neetu Kapoor and sister Riddhima Kapoor, Varsha Jain was “extremely nervous” to see how the audience would react to the show’s new world, set in an airport. “Since we were creating an airport, we didn’t want to be set-ish, that was very important for us and thankfully, the reception was positive,” she tells Indianexpress.com over zoom call.
Varsha has worked with Kapil and his production house on his earlier shows, mounting three seasons with them on TV as it became an unmissable weekly routine of several Indian households. Naturally, she got on board the Netflix project as well, which had a clear brief: To step out of their comfort zone and set the show in a different environment.
“The idea was that Kapil opens up a cafe in an airport. What the writers explained to me was since actors travel a lot this would be the perfect area to catch them while they are boarding a flight. Everyone connected to the show is either working at the airport or are coming and going. The entire frame was around this, so I had to build an airport which represented the characters and the premise of the show,” she said.
Keeping this in mind, Varsha began the pre-production. This time, the set was “larger in scale” and had to have a global appeal because of Netflix, but “keeping the Indian essence” alive. The streaming show was set in the same studio in Film City where Kapil’s previous shows were shot, so the size remained the same, but the team got a ceiling in place to give it in “indoor” feel, making the space look bigger.
“The pre-production was about two months, when we were planning the design on paper. We had to take into account what the characters on the show were doing. So, it was important to know where Krishna would come from and go, or the movement of the cook. There is a golf cart which comes and goes, so we had to ensure that we accommodate that in the space we had,” she added.
Varsha and her team took their inspiration from the Mumbai airport, which has a lot of Indian art within a contemporary architecture. The team kept the usage of glass and steel minimal, and played with colours and wooden texture to heighten the “warmth” of the show.
“We went back and forth to decide the art we want to use at this airport, the kind of cafe he would have; would it be too contemporary, not part of India among other things.”
As part of the pre-production, Varsha and her team had to check mark important basic questions before they design and ultimately execute the set building: The number of cameras being used for the show, their placement, the space actors would need for enactments and gags, the number of audience members being incorporated.
“Once the designs were good to go, we had 45 days to put it together. We had close to 60-70 people working on the set every day. We usually work on a 9-9 shift, but towards finishing, when the lightings are done and the cameras come in, those are the days we work through the nights and at that time there were about 120 people on certain days, that was the maximum.
“There was a part where we wanted to show the planes land and take off. But that was disturbing to the cameras and was creating a distraction from the entire gag. But behind the band is my favourite part, which is the runway and looks at the airport,” she said.
While the teams work behind the scenes, round the clock, they approach Kapil only after everyone has come to a common consensus within their respective department of the design they like.
“That’s when we present it to him for his feedback, what he wants changed, what works for him. This one worked for Kapil pretty much, the only thing he added was that he didn’t want the same backdrop to be there when they do gags. In the sense, if it was a mohalla set in the previous season, they would put props in front of the house and do gags there.
“But we didn’t want the cafe to be the backdrop always because then that is a giveaway that we have done a set up right in the centre of the stage in front of the cafe. So, in this we have a revolving cafe. Every time there is a tag, it simply turns over and there is a simpler background so that we can do different set ups each time. That was the only thing that came with him,” she revealed.
But with so many people involved, a set to run and a show to film, are there nightmares days for a production designer? Varsha laughed and said ‘several’ as she listed the last minute changes that often crop up.
“Such as certain colours or cushions not working when the cameras have come and you have only a few hours of the night to touch it up, to do it again. What is challenging is to turn it around in limited time with the things that we have already. When the cameras come, you are very close to the shoot dates, then there is not much time to reconsider or to try something else. But there are no last-minute changes on a shoot day, which is why they have technical checks.
“We do a lot of that before the guests come or the final day of shoot. So the tech day is a challenging day, where you figure if the red is looking too red on camera, if certain parts of the sets are just not visible. The first episode that’s shot is where all questions are answered, whatever tweaking is necessary is done. Once the first episode is shot, and if it is all fine, then we don’t have to change around much. It is just the props. We did a test shoot for this one, we prepared ourselves very well and the result was fantastic,” she signed off.
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