Master of retro sets

Walk into the sets of Valliyum Thetti Pulliyum Thetti and you’d feel you’ve gone back in time. For this upcoming movie, art director Jothish Shankar has continued his outstanding work that blurs the lines between reality and make believe.

He proudly says, “We built a 90s —style cinema hall. Set in Palakkad, the talkies is complete with a carbon projector (the kind used then), a screen, benches, fans and even a ticket counter. It’s fit to project a movie and run shows like a regular talkie.” He has also set up a market for the same film that again showcases his creativity and hardwork.

Jothish may seem a less than familiar name as most technicians remain in the background, but his work is his calling card. This is the man who astonished Mammootty by creating an entire village for Kunjananthante Kada.

Jothish fondly remembers how he was forced to send pictures of the making of Kunjananthante Kada sets to director Madhu Ambat as nobody could believe that the village he had put up was not a real one. Mammootty’s compliment for the same is a cherished moment for him.

Yet another fond memory of his is Mani Ratnam asking Salim Ahamed about him after seeing Adaminte Makan Abu. For him, these little incidents are far more valuable than any award.

His work in the recently-released Lord Livingstone 7000 Kandi had him creating a whole village, no typical one, but a tribal village. The hamlet was built atop trees, nearly 70 ft above the ground and that was Jothish’s masterpiece. He recalls, “It took us nearly six months to complete the set, and another three months went into building the village.”

He mentions that for the first three days after finding the location in the Idukki forests, they just stood and stared at the skies, praying for ideas to strike them.

On the fourth day, the apple fell and they got working. They had started out with a metal frame over which traditional building materials like bamboo was added on. Once completed, everyone who saw it was taken aback. Jothish fondly remembers how he used to stand atop the village he built, and look down on people who were seeing it for the first time.

“Nobody could take their eyes off of it, even as they made their way through the pathless forest,” he says. He is certain that this was one experience he’d never forget. The art director has also bagged his very first award, for the film Pathemari which took a year to complete. “It took me a whole year to complete my work for Pathemari,” he says.

The busy art director also has two untitled projects coming up.

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