Production designer and celebrity interior designer Rupin Suchak has become a prominent name in the film industry today. Mentored by ace production designer Sabu Cyril, he went on to work on films such as Ra One (2011), Happy Ending (2014), Ki & Ka, Dear Zindagi (both 2016), Padman (2018), and Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein (2022). Apart from sets, he has created aesthetically pleasing homes, offices and vanity vans for actors like Alia Bhatt, Ranveer Singh, Sonakshi Sinha, Aparshakti Khurana and Kangana Ranaut.
Among the many career highlights that he has had, one of them remains working with filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who is also widely known for his opulent sets apart from his masterful storytelling. The film was Inshallah and though it didn’t see the light of the day, being a part of it gave Suchak a new perspective and many memories. For the unversed, in 2019, the Salman Khan and Bhatt starrer romance musical was announced. The film was eyeing an Eid 2020 release but later, it was scrapped reportedly due to creative differences between Bhansali and Khan.
And now, in an exclusive conversation with News18, Suchak spills the beans on the much-anticipated film that was eventually put on the backburner. “Fortunately or unfortunately, the film didn’t make it to floors because of a showdown that happened, and Salman walked away from the sets. Salman and Bhansali didn’t want to do the film together. I spent a year pre-planning the set with Bhansali. We were in the USA for about three months scouting the location,” he shares.
He further reveals that much like any Bhansali film, Inshallah was also supposed to be high on the aesthetic quotient but was ‘a modern film’ with ‘a modern approach’. Recalling the work he put in to erect the sets, he elaborates, “In a span of nine months, we designed 24 sets. We started building three sets, out of which we had completed one. The following day, we shot with Alia. The second set was almost complete and the shoot was supposed to happen three days after the complete shoot was called off. We were supposed to finish the film a year later. But I leave it to my fate. I left the project with a happy memory because I learnt so much from it.”
Rupin continues, “I’ve to give it to Bhansali for the kind of stuff he gets out of his technicians and actors. He has a beautiful way of putting things out that makes you want to give it your all and not waste the opportunity you get with him. During that one year, I didn’t do any other project or even a TV commercial. Every day I would sit with him at his office.”
Bhansali is known to be a thorough perfectionist and hard taskmaster. Talking about the filmmaker’s much talked about style of working, Suchak explains, “He gives you a lot of detail on the plate. He makes you sign up for the project and expects you to give him all your time. Hence, you get completely involved in his films and that happens to all his technicians and actors. He asks you, ‘I would want you next to me every single day. Can you do that? If not, we shouldn’t take it forward.’ He comes in with a certain creative mood and until you’re attached to the project every single day, it’s very difficult for you to resonate with what he’s trying to say.”
So, how did he become a part of Inshallah and catch Bhansali’s attention? “He had met 10-15 different production designers before me. He has an amazing eye for detail and that helped me connect with him. He told me to show him a creation of mine that I’m very proud of. If you’re sitting in front of Bhansali and he asks you to show you something and you want to get a job, you would want to show the best thing possible. But I went in with the mind-set that I don’t want the job but only meet him,” he reminisces fondly.
The production designer, whose next project is actor, filmmaker and musician Farhan Akhtar’s Jee Le Zara starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Katrina Kaif and Bhatt, adds, “I had made a chandelier with a cloth and showed it to him. He looked me and asked, ‘Are you really showing me this? Don’t you want to show me anything else?’ I told him that I really liked the chandelier and that he makes better sets than I do. The same evening, he called me and told me that I’m going to be a part of Inshallah. He chose me for a magnum opus movie on the basis of a cloth chandelier!”
Yet another tent-pole films that Suchak was supposed to be a part of filmmaker SS Rajamouli’s epic actioner Baahubali. But he decided to not take it up and walk the risky road to become an independent production designer. Prod him further and he states, “I was supposed to be an assistant on Baahubali. I would have made good money but I went on to do something that I had decided at that time. I could have worked on the film and gained five years of experience but I would still be an assistant. I thought if I do five commercials and a small movie independently, that will matter a lot on my portfolio, especially in my industry. I think it was the right call I took at that time and I’ve no regrets.”
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