Hours after watching KGF2, and once the adrenalin high of the Prashanth Neel movie, starring Yash, washes away, some things remain. Chief among them is the art direction by Shivakumar J. If part one someone could create the fictional city of Narachi from scratch and showcase the sub-human lives led by the working community, part two of the film, which released last week to thunderous response, shows you a city with slightly better living conditions.
There’s a mansion in white with dark almost-Gothic inspired interiors, a bridge which is the scene of action, lanes and bylanes that lead to the workers’ colonies and the mines, and by the time you’re done with the film, some of these routes are seared in your head. You’re almost able to nudge a character to move towards a particular exit to escape.
Shivakumar, whose ancestors were sculptors, grew up in Bangalore, where his grandfather Kumbalingam moved from Kumbakonam. His father Jyotilingam was an artist too, as is his brother. Art was a very important part of his life, and Shivakumar went on to get a degree from the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath College of Fine Arts in Bangalore in 2000. Since 2004, he’s been creating interesting, unique sets that meld with the theme of the movie. His very first film Aham Premasmi (2005, directed by V Ravichandran, who got Shivakumar into cinema) won him the State Award for best art director. While he’s worked on many big projects, it took a KGF for the world to see what Shivakumar was capable of.
And, this was a very organic popularity that came from the people. Some years ago, when Shivakumar was attending an event in his daughter’s school, he sat anonymously among other parents. And then, someone announced that the art director of KGF was in their midst. Suddenly, there was clapping and hooting. “I’ve received calls from many people praising my work, but that day, that applause was very special. That showed me firsthand the KGF effect,” says Shivakumar.
To create the KGF universe, Shivakumar and his team (four assistants and a set department of 15, other than hired labour and artists) decided to do away with any earlier film references. “What you are seeing now is what Prashanth Neel narrated to me. We did an in-depth study of documentaries on mining, and saw how people lived there, the labour quarters, everything. In this film, KGF is not a government mine, but someone that an individual is doing, mostly under the carpet. The labourers are treated like slaves before being liberated from Garuda’s clutches. This is not a place with facilities, this is not a place with joy. And, the art in the movie had to convey that dark, sombre mood,” says Shivakumar.
The team began by eliminating materials they did not want to use for the sets. Plastic was the first to go out. “It did not suit the time period, plus we wanted to be friendly to the environment,” informs Shivakumar. The team sourced old tarpaulins from camps, and created rustic sets that went with the vision that Prashanth had. After a lot of trial and error, they fixed the final look. “I used a lot of tin sheets, gunny cloth and the only new material I went in for was aluminium for some portions,” he reveals.
Most of the first part was shot in Cyanide Hill in KGF, a 28-acre dumpyard where piles of waste were left. “We shot in almost all that terrain, constructing different sets across it — the Narachi gate, the bridge, the graveyard, shaft and tunnel are set here,” Shivakumar explains.
Even though the mansion looked pristine white amid a sea of dark tones, inside it, the mood is sombre too. “We used the chiaroscuro technique that Rembrandt used,” says the art director. This technique uses a beam of lighting as a spotlight to create a dramatic, theatrical effect. There are a lot of shadows in the film, and stories hidden inside those shadows. “We basically went in for a monochrome feel without it being monochrome,” says Shivakumar, who has travelled with the film for seven years now, creating sets in places such as Hyderabad, Ballari, Mysuru and KGF.
Chapter two was a progression over Chapter 1 in terms of the details of Narachi. “The life of people there was squalid in chapter 1, but by chapter 2, they’ve seen some change. The sets had to reflect that. With chapter 3, there will be more changes,” says Shivakumar, who is waiting to create the sets for part three. He’s now working on Saalar, again with Prashanth Neel, who goes to Telugu and teams up with Prabhas.
If the sets of KGF spoke, that is also because the director, cinematographer (Bhuvan Gowda) and stunt choreographers (AnbAriv) and Shivakumar had regular discussions before the art team created the sketches. “These discussions provided much clarity,” he says.
KGF, says Shivakumar, is a passion project for all those involved. “We worked against many odds, including inclement weather, to create the sets. We had to raise huge structures, but the mountains of waste could not handle the weight. It looked rock solid on the surface, but two feet below, it was soft dust. When it rains, the surface would literally melt. We needed to think out of the box to make structures stand on this kind of base, especially because we shot both during summer and the monsoon.”
Among the things Shivakumar is particularly happy about is the statue of the divine feminine he created. She lords over Narachi, and people both look up to her and are afraid of her. “I chose to create her in the folk style, and the finish was rustic. That created a sense of unease, which the script warranted,” he says.
For now, while he is revelling in the kind words that have come his way for KGF2, Shivakumar the art director is mentally already at work to see how he can improve his craft to help narrate the story of KGF3 better.
Subha J Rao is a consultant writer and editor based out of Mangaluru, Karnataka. There, she keeps alive her love for cinema across languages. You can find her on Twitter @subhajrao.
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