As the makers have announced the second season of survival drama ‘Kaala Paani’, Rakesh Yadav, the production designer, who brought the sets of the show alive opened up about the set of specific moments or set pieces that he is particularly proud of, and also revealed the creative process behind them.
The production designer shared: ” ‘Kaala Paani’ is very close to my heart, to pick any particular scene would be a cruelty to other scenes. I would say that the final look and feel that we achieved with the creation of the interiors of a Japanese bunker is something I am very proud of.”
“Andaman has World War Two-era Japanese bunkers scattered around the island to keep a close watch on the Indian Ocean. They were built on higher grounds to watch over as much area as possible. When we set about creating the interiors of the bunker in the studio, we had to make sure that we kept in mind the elevation and architectural feel of the World War two Japanese bunkers. We went through as many documentary pieces of evidence as possible to grasp the intricacies of a bunker and what we created after so much effort is something I’ll always be proud of,” he said.
Rakesh, who has been associated with a multitude of projects including ‘Tumbbad’, ‘Laal Kaptaan’, ‘Serious Men’, and ‘Ship of Theseus’, also talked about the differences between Indian and international cinema in terms of production design.
“The differences between the Indian cinema and international cinema are mostly two-fold. Firstly, the amount of preparation that an international crew does to achieve their specific look and feel is something still missing from our side. We sometimes still leave a few things for the last minute or want something new on the day of shooting,” he said.
Rakesh said: “Secondly, the budget constraint is an issue because it lets us compromise on a lot of elements that would have made our cinematic world more authentic. But I would also like to add that with the coming of international OTT platforms, we are closing this gap very rapidly.”
The season one featured a stellar cast including Mona Singh, Ashutosh Gowariker, Amey Wagh, Sukant Goel, Vikas Kumar, Arushi Sharma, Radhika Mehrotra, Chinmay Mandlekar, and Poornima Indrajith, among others.
The second season will bow on Netflix
