Saturday, October 8, 2011

Art Director Thota Tharrani has penchant for doing something new in every film

Where the Legacy Began!

The replica of the ‘Madurai Meenakshi temple’ set in the Telugu film “Arjun”; the amazing glass set for the song 'Sahana' in “Sivaji, the Boss”; the creation of a realistic set of the Dharavi slums for the film “Nayagan” or the colourful transparent bus of “Kaadhalan”; the mythological Indralok created for “Indralokathil Naa Alagappan”, the grandeur of the sets for “Thiruda Thiruda” or “Mudalvan”, the Babylonian-inspired backdrop for the song ‘Vaji Vaji’ and many more added to the flavour, realism to films.
The man behind these realistic sets and many more master pieces are Padmashri Thota Tharrani, the Art Director, Production Designer of many films. The most sought after art director today, Thotta Tharani is also in addition to that a painter and artist. And he has dabbled in acting as well. Last week Thota Tharrani was decorated with Honarary Doctorate degree by the Sathyabhama University.
From realistic sets to larger than life creations, Tharani has done it all. His penchant for doing something new in his each and every film, even after four decades in the movie business, makes him the number one art director down south. His expertise in magnificent and larger than life sets has been well appreciated and awarded. With all his name and fame he still believes in designing on paper and is also very particular about designing on inch graph paper so that all the designs are on scale and can be easily erected.
He has completed more than 200 feature films as a Set Designer and Art Director including three foreign productions: “Pondichery, Dernier Comptoir Des Indes” (French), “Hanuman” (French) and “Branchie 1999” (Italian). He is a distinguished art director in Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam films.
This writer of Asian Tribune met Thota Tharrani at his fabulous studios at Cathedral Road last week. His personal studio is artistic, inspiring, eyeful and interesting. His office room, three studios, within within, mirrors the artist’s persona, taste. Books on travel, art and architecture and set designing are neatly arranged on the shelves. Curious art works are neatly placed in his office, studios. The walls are adorned with paintings and sketches, all his own.
On one side of the room is placed a low table in the middle of a carpet with drawing paper, ever ready with a Faber-Castle pencil set and a pencil and brush stand to settle down for his work. He is simple, down to earth personality, no maverick like most artists used to be (for example like F M Husain). With his unruly hair, casual dress, he looks every inch an artist.
Tharani says the glass set for “Sivaji, the Boss” was created in 20 days at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, which he considers to be his magnum opus to date in his 40-year career. He reveals the secrets behind the stylish and often incredible look of ‘Sivaji,’ the art director says, “It has been one and a half years of very hard work. I am happy people have noticed my work in the film.” The song became a big hit, earning praise for the set design as well as the cinematography. Before making the set, director Shankar played the song for him. This became the inspiration for the set, he says.
Following Sivaji, he worked for “Dashaavtaram,” Kamal Haasan's film. Talking about the film Tharani was all praise for the actor and K.S.Ravikumar, the film's director for handling the ten different roles of Kamal so well. Thotta Tharani's masterpieces include the replica of the Madurai Meenakshi temple in the Telugu film Arjun.
The Madurai Meenakshi temple set recreated at Gandipet for Mahesh Babu's “Arjun”, has created ripples of excitement and curiosity ever since it came to limelight. It was almost the same size as the original temple - perhaps just about 25 feet less to make it suitable for the film. It measured approximately 350 feet by 200 feet, says Tharani. While the construction of the temple at Madurai spanned hundreds of years, the set costed about Rs. four crore. With 1,000 statues and statuettes and hundreds of intricate mudras, the set took six months to complete and it was the brainchild of the acclaimed art director, Thota Tharani. Crafting it and erecting it took 400 carpenters and 200 painters.
The artificial dome for TN Assembly
When the new Tamil Nadu Assembly complex at the Omandurar Government Estate was getting ready to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on March 13, the dome that will adorn the seven-storied complex was not yet ready and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has asked well-known art director Thotta Tharani to create a replica, which would cost the exchequer about Rs 2 crore. It took almost 12 days, over 500 men from OHM Decors to do the artificial dome under the guidance of Tharrani.
With a Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Arts (Painting) from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Chennai, Thota Tharani has participated in the Design Symposium of the Crafts Festival "Living in Seasons", Toyama, Japan (1992); in the Print Making Workshop, British Council, Chennai, in the Print-Making Workshop at "Atelier 17", Paris; in the Fresco Painting Camp, Rajasthan, and in the Graphic Workshop at Garhi Village, New Delhi.
In addition to receiving the Padma Shri in 2001, Tharani has won awards at the Mysore Dassera Art Exhibition, at the Mysore Pradesh Chitrakala Parishad, Bangalore and for Graphic Prints in the Regional Lalit Kala Akademi. ``For me every award means more involvement in what I am doing. And an honour like this (the Padma Shri) is a bit scary only because it places a huge responsibility on you. You have to live up to it and you need to do something more, something extra in each and every project,'' says the man who has won the best art director's award in three states, The Rajath Kamal (national award) twice, a Filmfare award, a Cinema Express award and the Kalaimamani award.
Thota Tharrani has held and participated in numerous exhibitions in India and abroad - in Paris, Bordeaux, Vienna and in Yugoslavia and Germany. His works were shown at Kanagawa International Print Exhibition (1983); at the III & IV Mini Prints Biennale, Barcelona (1983 & 1984).Tharani seems very satisfied with the way he has been working so far - films by day and painting at night - and plans to continue in the same fashion. "I would like to concentrate more on painting. My aim is to set up a gallery here in the long run,'' he says.
His father inspires him
Thota Tharrani has been involved in the art of set design since he was just twelve when he helped his father, Thota Venkateswara Rao an artiste turned artist.
Father Thota had worked for more than 100 films. His father hailing from Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh started as a drama and film artiste, mostly playing female roles. Coming to Chennai Thota became an assistant art director under Sudhansu Roy in all L V Prasad films. Later he joined Art Director A K Sekar, who was a pioneer of Indian Cinema, as his assistant. Thota Venkateswara Rao reigned as film art director for two decades. There was times almost all floors of Chennai’s studios were having sets by Thota.
Thota Tharrani has been visiting the sets since a very tender age. His keen observation, artistic hand, creativity and uniqueness what marked him stand apart from the rest of the people. He had been helping his dad in creating sets from the age of twelve. He has been working in the industry and at the same time pursuing his interest in art also.
After his diploma in Fine arts and Crafts, Tharrani went for his post-graduation in 1971, simultaneous working for films under his father. He worked as commercial artist in Bombay briefly and made a mark in that field and won three awards for advertisement design. In 1985 he came back as full time in to film industry, stepping into the shoes of his father. “Nagamalli” in Telugu was his first independent work in film. Afterwards no looking back, films streamed his way.
Sultan the Warrior, Kandasamy, Unnai pol Oruvan, Unnai pol Oruvan, Dasavatharam, Dham Dhoom, Kuselan, Thirutupayale, Thirutupayale, Maruthamalai, Chandramukhi, are some of his film to mention a few.
Tharrani loves his painting works
The painter in Tharani is as fascinating as the art director. Does his film career have an impact on his art? “Well, I have never really been accepted as an artist. But that does not bother me. I have the best of both worlds. I work at my pace and on my terms,” says Tharani.
He is an artist whose creativity and style reflects in his works. His works consist of paintings, murals, paper collages, and wooden montages and so on. The use of colors extends from a splash of bright hues to monochromatic in his latest Series which represents his versatility and his ability to blend his creativity & imagination that is innate in him. His works speaks for itself.
He is one of the few people who has not restricted himself with any one particular medium. He has used everything right from pencil, chalk, Colour pencils, crayons, pastels, acrylic, and watercolors on canvas, paper, boards, blackboards, sunmica, and ceramic murals. He has also largely experimented with paper collage and later on with wooden montages. Each of his works has an unsaid saga behind them.
Some of his collections can be seen at the following places: Archives Municipales De Bordeaux, Ecole des Beaux Arts Bordeaux,; Tourism De L'Inde,;Maison De L'Inde,-- all France Mitsubishi Corp., Calcutta, ECC, India; Hindustan Motors; Air India, Mumbai, SPIC, Mumbai, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, KCP Chennai & New Delhi, India; Deccan Hospital, Hyderabad, The Catholic Syrian Bank, Trichur, TAFE, Chennai, RANE, Chennai, Madras Rubber Factory, Chennai, Chemplast ; Chennai, National Art Gallery, Chennai,; The Hindu, Chennai, India Pistons, Chennai, and many other private companies and individual collections in India and abroad.

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