When art director Shiji Pattanam was signed by director Srikant Murali for his debut vehicle Aby, he was told to source a plane that would be very central to the movie.
Renting out a plane, however, was not at all an option. “At a crucial juncture in the movie, the plane is set on fire. So, renting was ruled out. We didn’t also want miniature dummies either. After much thinking and consulting experts, we decided to build a plane. For this, we sourced several autorickshaw spare parts out of which we made the plane from scratch,” says Shiji.
He was also impressed when Vineeth Sreenivasan learned some carpentry skills, welding and other mechanics associated with the plane. “Vineeth wanted his character to look very real,” he added.
The challenges didn’t end there. “The movie was shot entirely in Idukki. In the final scenes, Aby’s plane takes off and actually flies. For this shot, we rented a plane from Aerospace centre in Bangalore. However, we had to modify it since it was not designed for Idukki’s weather which is cold and windy,” he said.
Shiji consulted experts at the Aerosports Centre. “Captain Ashok Mehta taught me the aerodynamics of the powered glider and microlight aircraft. I had to recreate the glider in Idukki. Also, since we could not shoot the flight take off at any hangar, we had to make a set of a hangar overnight. It was a great experience, but very challenging too,” he admits.
The art director says erecting the sets was also a challenge since the movie was shot in three age frames.
“The movie begins with Aby as a small boy. Initially, he begins to create planes using paper and other craft items (for which we used soap covers and match boxes), he soon begins experimenting with spare parts, remote planes and machinery.
Then, as he grows older, he builds the plane, which is successfully flown at last. So, the workshops and homes had to change with the time,” Shiji adds.
Shiji spent two months to learn, design and construct the sets for the movie. “We zoomed in on one entire street at Mariyappuram in Idukki where the sets would be constructed.
There is a scene in the movie where the hero comes to the heroine’s house to draw water. The hero’s house is separated from her home only by a rock border. Initially, we had scourged several places in Idukki for such a place, but didn’t find one which is why we finally decided to set it,” he says.
Shiji, who has previous experiences working with mechanical objects for Robot, Pazhassiraja and Angadi Theru due to his association with production designer T Muthuraj, has three more movies in the pipeline.