Dream factory

Omung and Vanita Kumar Khandula look at Monalisa while designing their extravagant Bollywood sets
As the door to the Andheri office of Bollywood8217;s busiest set designers Omung and Vanita Kumar Khandula opens, you know you are about to enter a fantasyland. The wall facing the entrance is a microcosm of Broadway. It8217;s plastered with theatre masterpieces such as Phantom of the Opera, Moulin Rouge, Cats, Les Miserables and The Lion King.
8220;Films and TV are a calling but theatre is an abiding passion,8221; says Vanita, who8217;s worked for 12 years in Shiamak Davar8217;s dance troupe and is gearing up for a stage musical.

Once you are past the wall and into the primary area, you are almost transported into the algae-like surreal dreamworld of Saawariya. Except that the duo8217;s studio is more vivid than the dominating greens and blues they chose for Sanjay Leela Bhansali8217;s film, thus turning it into a visual treat.
The space is as larger-than-life as a Bollywood film. And it is a kaleidoscope of global arts8212;a Charlie Chaplin puppet collected from Prague, a wooden Pinocchio from Austria, mood masks from Venice, curtains with prints of Czech artist Alphonse Mucha8217;s designs, Monalisa frames from Paris, an avalanche of books on art, architecture, interior deacute;cor and films and a centrepiece poster of Ranbir Kapoor in a towel against a curtain from a sequence of their last big project, Saawariya.

8220;Our office reflects our character and nurtures our creativity. It is not a boring, cubical space,8221; says wife Vanita. There is a method in the riot of colours though. 8220;When I go blank doing my sketches, I just look around and the images start pouring in,8221; says Omung, as he reclines on a comfy bed8212;yes, that8217;s also part of the workspace8212;covered with a multi-hued sheet and done up further with ethnic print cushions. 8220;Since a creative job has no fixed hours of working, the office must be like home,8221; he says.

As much as there is comfort in the duo8217;s office, there8217;s also a lot of commotion8212;with images of talking witches, walking tigers and laughing Buddhas. 8220;Motion is an immovable feature of our workspace, just as a hint of Monalisa is there in every film of ours,8221; says Omung. No wonder a giant replica of the Da Vinci masterpiece8212;cut into pieces with one frame showing the famous crossed hands, another exposing the smile ad yet another the side-view of the face8212;graces the wall opposite the designers8217; sketch table, where they have prepared the blueprint of the sets of their forthcoming films Love Story 2050 and Yuvraaj and their on-air TV serial Ramayan.