Behind the Scenes: Magic of Film Sets

Focus on details has always been a part of 'me', even before I knew I wanted to be an Art Director

I didn’t grow up thinking I’d become an art director. But I did grow up watching Hindi films on Sunday afternoons with my family, cosily on my sofa while the city outside carried on with its noise and charm. Bombay in the 90s was a canvas in itself - full of contradictions and character. And Hindi cinema back then? Well, it painted the kind of dreamy pictures that stuck. Most 90's kids would remember this feeling. It played a key role in our upbringing. They were dreamy, often painting a picture of a perfect life - big homes, effortless love, a lens into lives that felt very distant and yet strangely familiar to Indian homes, to my home. Social media was non-existent. Pinterest was not the obvious answer to finding inspiration. I saw the world through the lens of what was shown in the movies. It painted a picture for me of the world and how people lived and behaved. It was all dreamy. And for a girl like me, growing up in the suburbs, that was enough. Around 2010, when Wake Up Sid released in the theatres when school was coming to an end. The timing was just perfect. A boy trying to find purpose and happiness in his life through his journey with parents, friends and exploration. Even today, when I go back and watch it, it’s just such a picturesque view of Bombay and life in general. I vividly remember that particular scene when Sid, character played by Ranbir Kapoor takes his camera and wanders around the streets of Mumbai and curates some perfect moments - each telling a story of a Mumbaikar’s feelings. Since I have always stayed in Bombay, however, during school days, I din't go around much in such bylanes of Bombay. It excited me to watch all of it, with the vibe of familiarity, however, never before seen in an avatar. The idea of a beautiful workspace excited me. The empty house of Aisha (character played by actress Konkana Sen), converted into a beautiful cozy home, made me dream of doing such beautifying of spaces in my life as a profession. That was the spark - my moment of making a decision. That house became more than a set. It became a dream. A direction. The idea that simplicity of a city can be captured only with locals, was observed through this movie. That’s when I realised, observing the nitty gritties of a space, through the vibe of locals, its design, its environment graphics, the food they eat. The way an outsider sees a city. The transition of a simple story unfolds so beautifully, without an extra inch of glamour. The reality of a young woman trying to make a career in a big city. I Observed. Framed. Felt it all. Wake Up Sid didn’t show us glamour. It showed us life - messy, soft, quiet and full of small joys. It reminded me that it wasn’t always about drama. Sometimes, it was in a single yellow mug on a windowsill, or a bookshelf built slowly over time or simply the way sunlight hit a wall at 4 PM. That film was a mirror of Bombay, of ambition, of me at 17, unsure of the next step but already dreaming of making spaces feel like stories. It was the start of my ‘Wake Up Sid’ era!

And even today, when I style a frame or build a set, I think back to that house. The city. That moment when a film quietly told me what I wanted to do with my life. My lips quietly break into a smile that I know only I will understand.