Jubilee became the talk of the town soon after its release, thanks to the stellar performances from the cast. If you have already watched the show, you surely had been awe-struck by the grand and real-life sets flaunting the yesteryear studios and production houses built from scratch. Production designer Aparna Sud along with her team designed and built that huge set not just once but twice. We caught up with her to know more about the same.
Share some anecdotes about the Jubilee sets. How did you recreate that grandeur of the yesteryears?
We first had to decide what we needed to show in Roy Talkies, and then we divided the set depending on our shoot schedule, like if we needed the admin cabin or Roy’s cabin, we removed everyt h i n g i n t h e office interiors and exterior and then designed it accordingly. The interiors have a lot of influence from the art deco movement since that was very prevalent at that time. That was the architecture that we followed for Roy Talkies. The shooting was done in two parts, one pre-Covid, and another after the restrictions were relaxed.
How difficult or hard has it been for you?
We almost had created 95 per cent of Roy Talkies, which later had to be pulled down. The pandemic hit us badly in the middle of 2021 but we had preserved every bit of it to reuse and rebuild everything.
Were you afraid that the set may not look the same?
The second time Mukund Gupta built that set, it looked identical to what we had designed on paper.
Would you consider Jubilee your biggest project so far?
I would not solely consider Jubilee as my biggest project, since I have done Neerja, but yes this is the latest and biggest web series I would say. I have also worked on Meenakshi Sundareshwar on OTT, but that was a full-length film.
What goes into creating a set?
We first have to look at the requirements of the set, as in why is the set important, and if an actual location would be better than a set. More importantly, we have to check what story we are telling on the set, and what is written on the script.
Which one would you consider to be the most difficult set that you have designed so far?
I think all were challenging at different levels, but Jubilee was a little more hectic because the set was made during the pandemic and we were allowed to have only a limited number of labourers.
What are the projects you are working on right now?
I have an unannounced web show, and a few television commercials at the moment.