Aiming for the sky

The cast of Airlines – Har Udaan Ek Toofan

By Priyanka Bhadani

The buzz around Airlines – Har Udaan Ek Toofan started doing the rounds as soon as the show was announced last year. Produced by Miditech, the 26-episode drama-thriller written by Advaita Kala, is being touted as one of the most expensive shows on Indian TV.
The show is set against the backdrop of the aviation industry and features actors Tulip Joshi and Yudhisthir (VJ Yudi) essaying the lead roles of commercial pilots.
Supavitra Babul, the director of the show, informs that since most of the sequences required the setting to be inside an aircraft, a special set was created in the Film City, Noida. “The set is huge and may be converted into a tourist spot once the entire shoot is over,” he quips as he explains that a lot of effort has been put in to get the real look of an aircraft.
Interestingly, the aircraft — modeled on Boeing 737, that has been designed by art director Narendra Rahurikar, took over three months to be conceptualised, finalised and construct. In fact, close to Rs. 85 lakhs have been spent on the construction of the set.
The challenge, says Babul, was to make the cockpit and the passengers’ panel look as real as possible. “The focus of the camera at times is completely on the detailing and thus the aesthetics needed to be in place,” he remarks as he says that the aircraft was made shoot-friendly. The side panels of the aircraft can be wheeled away and to get perfect top angle shot of the passenger cabin, the ceiling had been made removable. “It has been conceptualised very thoughtfully because we could shoot without any difficulty even with the camera, lights, crew, actors inside the passengers’ panel.”
Not just that, since many sequences in the show needed to show the airport and the team wanted it to look real, special permissions were taken to shoot at a non-functional terminal at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. “The challenge we faced while shooting there was to make it look like a fully functional terminal. We needed to create a lot facade for that,” he says.
The director also talks about a chase-action sequence that starts from a hotel in Goa. “But since we were shooting in Delhi, we shot a few scenes in Manesar and a set — an imitation of Goa — was also created in Madh Island in Mumbai. It was interesting because of the action involved in the sequence,” he says.
Babul says that since the concept of the show is fresh and there wasn’t a template to be followed, the team had the creative freedom to experiment. “We (the creative people in the team) have worked really hard on the project to give the audience a cinematic experience while keeping the budget constraints in mind,” he says.
The show also has a lot of interesting visual effects for which the post-production company Pixion has been roped in. Airlines is set to go on air on from August 24 and will be telecast every Sunday at 9 pm.