Superstar Prabhas’ Baahubali franchise was touted to be the most anticipated film. It left the audience mesmerized with the visual extravaganza never seen before in the Indian Cinema. Similarly, his upcoming next Magnum Opus Saaho that is touted as the most expensive film is being keenly awaited. While the teaser has given cinephiles a peek into the larger-than-life world envisioned by director Sujeeth. The fictional universe apparently took two years and Rs 65 crore for production designer Sabu Cyril to create.
The glimpses of the trailer of Saaho gives a visual treat showcasing high-end action sequences. To create a visual replica of the desert emirate, the makers bought National Award-winning production designer who took eight trips to Abu Dhabi. Prabhas was keen on roping in Sabu Cyril as he had done a great job with the sets of Baahubali. Taking a cue from the makers of the Batman series who have created Gotham city, the director and Cyril designed a fictional city, modelled on Abu Dhabi. Cyril and Sujeeth hand-picked a team of 300 artists, including visual effects artistes and digital compositors, for the task. With the skyline of the UAE capital serving as the blueprint, Cyril and the VFX team gave it a futuristic spin by way of spiral-designed buildings and neo-futurist architectural structures. The interiors were built from scratch by Cyril in Hyderabad.
Director Sujeeth left no stone unturned in bringing the best international technicians on board. “Special effects supervisor Danilo Bollettini, who has previously worked on Wonder Woman (2017) and Avengers: Age Of Ultron (2015), is attached to the project. VFX supervisor Kamalakannan and his 20-member team were specially roped in at Prabhas’ behest. The production itself has cost Rs 65 crore.”
Excited about his latest creation, Production designer Sabu Cyril says, “Our movies have never seen something like this. We recreated this set-up in Abu Dhabi because of geographical availability and advantages in a bigger space. It took us a lot of time, but we needed it to be as close to perfection and believability as possible.”
Saaho is being shot in three languages, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu, simultaneously. The movie also has a superlative ensemble cast of Jackie Shroff, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Mandira Bedi, Chunky Panday, Mahesh Manjrekar, Arun Vijay, Murali Sharma, amongst others.
‘Saaho’ is a high octane action thriller which is presented by T-Series, produced by UV Creations and directed by Sujeeth and is set to hit the theatres on August 30, 2019.
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