Meet Sabu Cyril, the Magician Behind the Sets Of ‘Baahubali’

Award winning production designer Sabu Cyril on creating the sets for the two ‘Baahubali’ films.

Sabu Cyril shows the model of a set to director SS Rajamouli while working on Baahubali: The Conclusion. (Photo courtesy: Arka Mediaworks)

Q: I’ve been watching your films since I was in school probably, Adwaitham, Kala Pani­, Hey Ram - you’re a real veteran in the production design department. What was the most challenging part of working on the Baahubali films despite your experience?

Sabu Cyril: See actually, to tell you the truth, be it Hey Ram or Kala Pani and all those films, I could do like ten of those films together. But Baahubali, the subject has so many sets and so many things to be done, the requirement was so high so it was quite a challenge. The working hours are not easy, the time we had to complete such a big film was not easy at all. In Kala Pani and other films, we had a period when this happened, we had to recreate, so we had references.

Here, we had to design everything with no time period reference, it could be 300 years ago or 500 years ago. It had to be Indian, it had to be large-scale and there were no proper references for any kingdoms or anything that we could take. That was a challenge, to create something and put it together.

Q: The grandeur of Baahubali comes through because of the sets, the scale and because it is a mix of at direction and VFX. So how do the two departments complement each other?

Sabu Cyril: These days you can’t make out where the CG (computer graphics) is starting. That’s the best part of this because it is done so well, it has become seamless. What I have done, the VFX has taken to the next level. A scale I can’t achieve has been done by computer graphics. They add texture, colour, lighting so well, it becomes seamless and that’s one advantage we have today. Technology has really helped us to take it to another level.

Before and after VFX shots from Baahubali: The Beginning. (Photo courtesy: YouTube)

Before and after VFX shots from Baahubali: The Beginning. (Photo courtesy: YouTube)

Q: How involved is Rajamouli in the production design aspect? Is he very specific about what he wants on a set and how it should look or does he give a broad brief and then leave it to you to fill in the gaps?

Sabu Cyril: No, actually, in the beginning we start out on the film with the broad view he has. He tells us there has to be a large layout and the scale should look huge and massive. Then from there we start doing the designing and he gets involved in every part of the detail. When he wants something, there’s a reason behind it. He loves to be a part of every department. Whenever we show him a good thing, he’ll say, ‘do it better’ and we agree, ultimately it is team work but he is the one who is leading the team.

Q: What is the biggest prop you built for Baahubali? And what did it entail in terms of budget, the number of days it took to build and the number of people working on it?

Sabu Cyril: There were times when there were 2000 people working for me because of the kind of work that was happening. We used to be working on 3 sets side by side, so one would get over and we would have to bolt to the next one.

The Rana Daggubati statue was a huge one of 100 feet, the middle part of it was done by CG, but the head alone was about 28 feet tall, the legs were 45 feet, we had to put it together. But the sets itself - one was spread across 5 acres of land, another one was 3 acres. The scale was big.

Q: You’ve also worked on Enthiran with Shankar, who is another filmmaker who has the ability to use production design and VFX effectively. How different are the working styles of Rajamouli and Shankar?

Sabu Cyril: They both are very hard working people, actually. I think everyone has their own way of doing things. If you ask me how I found working with them, I can’t really pin point how different Rajamouli is from Shankar. I think everyone is right in their own way. I don’t even feel there is any difference as such since I adjust myself according to their working styles.

Rajamouli in conversation with Sabu Cyril on the set of Baahubali: The Conclusion. (Photo courtesy: Arka Mediaworks)

Q: Is it true that you had to let go of Shankar and Rajinikanth’s 2.0 because you were working on Baahubali?

Sabu Cyril: I was supposed to do 2.0 when it was a Hindi film and Aamir Khan was to star in it. But things got delayed and by the time they got around to working things out, Baahubali had started.

Q: We were speaking to Prabhas and Rana Daggubati and they told us that the weapons, the armour and helmets used in the film were heavy and it was quite a task to wear them. Tell us what a basic weapon and costume would be made of in Baahubali.

Sabu Cyril: It was not very heavy. In fact, we made it out of fibre glass and even the swords which were made for them were done with carbon fibre. Carbon fibre is used to make helicopter blades, it is light and soft so if accidents do happen, people don’t hurt themselves. Compared to what the original armour and swords would weigh, these would be considerably light. But whatever the weight is, when you use it for a week and continuously do the same thing during rehearsals and shooting, it results in strain. We made it a point to make it lightweight and comfortable, even the armour was made flexible so that it doesn’t hurt during action.

SS Rajamouli with Rana Daggubati on the set of Baahubali: The Conclusion. (Photo courtesy: Arka Mediaworks)

Q: Were there any creative differences on set while you were working with Rajamouli? Because there is this tension of racing against time and building a massive set needs patience.

Sabu Cyril: Rajamouli knows how much time it will take and I think I am very good under pressure. I tend to work faster and think faster. We all work on the scene together and are like a family together because it’s not easy getting up at 3.30 in the morning and sleeping at 11.30 in the night for five years.