Naga Shaurya-starrer Lakshya, based on the sport of archery, is a fictional biopic. But it has created a lot of buzz, especially now with the Olympic connection the film, has. But director Dheerendra Santhossh Jagarlapudi is tight-lipped about it.
“The connection is purely a coincidence,” he says. “I actually wrote this story long back, but the film was delayed due to COVID-19, so we have an unexpected connect to the present setting of the Olympics. We don’t want to reveal that right now. Let the audience feel the thrill in the theatre.”
The director did tell us that a special set has been built to shoot the climax portion of the film. “The climax (which has the connection to the Olympic) will leave a mark in the memory of the audience; it’ll take the film to a different high,” says Santhossh, revealing that the plot was originally till the protagonist qualifies for the All India Nationals.
“As Naga Shaurya kept on practicing archery, he got better with the sport. It was then we thought a better and a more compact version of the climax will take the film to the next level and would do justice to the script. So we have changed and had a new, a different dimension to the climax,” Santhossh elaborates.
Archery stadium set resembles Olympics stadium
An archery stadium set was built on the city outskirts for shooting the climax portion of the film. The filmmakers even consulted national coaches and experts in the field of archery on what goes into constructing a set of archery stadium of international standards. In fact, the archery stadium set apparently replicates the one that’s being used in the Tokyo Olympics.
Since the set was constructed at an exterior location, at times the makers were apprehensive that rain may play spoilsport and destroy the set.
The film’s art director Sharmela Yalisetty adds, “We wanted the set to look authentic and original and hence there was an archery coach on the set throughout the shooting giving us details and pointing out the betterments for the set. So be it the bows and arrows, scoreboard, target board, floor mat, crowd seating capacity, etc., everything was built to seem like a part of the Olympics. Just like how we saw in the recent Olympics, we have literally recreated the setting.”
She talks about the intense research and detailing that went into constructing the set. She states that they have spent considerable time working on the measurements, dimensions, infrastructure, and art installations for the set work.
“If it’s cricket or soccer we can add art installations (like audience galleries) without distracting the players. But since archery is a disciplined sport, and that too about focus, art installations became a huge challenge,” adds Sharmela.
“So we went to Delhi, met several experts in the field and took several references of the sport’s stadium, and eventually came up with a comprehensive design of archery stadium set.”
We are told the makers had initially zeroed in on the LB Stadium in Hyderabad to shoot the climax. “But COVID-19 played spoilsport, and the subsequent SOPs for film shooting had made things difficult for the us.
“Luckily, we found a huge place on the campus of an international school on the outskirts, which was perfect for us to construct a set and complete the climax shooting,” explains Sharmela about the sets that took around two weeks to build, with people in hundreds on the sets while filming the climax portion.
