Nature inspires
As we drive away from the incessant urban roar from his Powai office to Big N D Studios in Karjat, 65 kms away from Mumbai, Nitin Desai goes into a reflective mode, “I am thankful to God that he made me an artist.” He is also grateful to his bank-officer father who nurtured and encouraged his talented son. For those were the days when you became an artist only if you were an academic failure, he points out. Desai’s earliest brush with the artistic world dates back to school vacations in his native place Dapoli in Konkan, “I would venture into the woods and find branches and twigs and shape those into various playthings like gulli-danda and swords,” he reminisces happily, “Nature is my biggest inspiration,” he adds.
Life began in a 10 by 10 chawl room in a joint family at Worli, in downtown who later moved to the far-flung suburb Mulund where he continues to stay. Young Nitin won all the art competitions in school and eventually joined the J J School of Arts where he graduated in commercial art with photography as his specialisation.

Photo finish
Desai reveals that his father loaned him a princely sum of Rs 2.5 lakhs to launch his own photo colour lab. Business was good but Desai yearned for bigger goals. His mami (maternal aunt)who is a Bengali empathised with his creative ambitions and urged him to join films. She introduced him to noted art director Nitish Roy who commissioned Desai to develop some under-exposed rolls, “He was so impressed with the results that he asked me to join him,” he relates. It was on May 9,1986 (he recalls the date very fondly) that Desai set his first foot on a film set where Govind Nihalani’s tele-serial Tamas was being shot. “I worked there for 13 days and nights recreating Punjab at Film City, I was so mesmerised by the three-dimensional world of the sets that I even forgot to inform my mother about my new job,” he laughs. He hasn’t looked back ever since – carpentry, fabrications, plastering, colouring, aging the sets (by adding broken pipes and peeling paint etc) and then adding property to the sets became the essence of his being. It’s been 22 glorious years of art direction for him now.

Period specialist
Chandraprakash Dwivedi’s epic tele-serial Chanakya was Desai’s first independent assignment. “I had to recreate the ancient grandeur of Pataliputra (now Patna) for which I scoured libraries and conducted an in-depth study before designing the sets,” he informs. Combining architecture with the culture of the times, he breathed life into his sets. Innovation and improvement have been the key operatives of his work, “I delegate set designing to various departments - firstly research, followed by the art department making illustrations and models, computer department making AutoCad drawings and 3-D computer walks and then the final touches are given by the property, warehouse and construction departments. I work out the concept of the design as per the script and director’s vision,” he explains.
Working with directors of varied sensibilities - Govind Nihalani, Gulzar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Ashutosh Gowariker, David Dhawan and Indra Kumar Desai has proved his versatility . “My score now is 99 films,” he declares proudly. He says he has no qualms about designing sets for tele-serials (Kaun Banega Crorepati, Nach Baliye etc) and advertisements (Nike, Lehar Pepsi and many more).
The turning point of his career remains Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 1942 - A Love Story. One town square set cost Rs 60 lakhs back in 1993, “Everybody advised Vinod against the set but he asked me if I was confident and I said 200%! The film won me accolades and awards galore,” he smiles eyeing his Screen trophies lining the mantlepiece.

Wooing Hollywood
Simultanaeously, Desai has been an art director on Hollywood productions shot in India - Holy Smoke, Such A Long Journey, Walt Disney’s Jungle Book and Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay as well as Kamasutra. “I like to portray India’s grandeur through my work, I am not for gloryfying our poverty or slums,” he shrugs. Forts, palaces, temples and expansive gardens with decorated elephants is what his menu card reads like.
In 2004, Oliver Stone’s one visit changed his life. Stone was set on shooting his magnum opus Alexander The Great in India and Desai was to the art director. But Stone changed his mind after one visit to Film City, “Are these shooting floors or godowns?” he bellowed. And he walked away with the Rs 650 crore worth project and shot in Morocco. “I was crestfallen, we have the talent and creativity but we didn’t have the infrastructure to anchor an international project! It made me think hard and that’s when I thought of launching a world-class studio,” he reveals. Desai studied Universal Studio in Los Angeles, Disney World, Pinewood Studios in UK, Bavaria Studio in Germany and then drew out the plan of a dream studio - N D Studios.

A dream comes true
Desai searched for an appropriate plot of land and when he sighted the 46 acres in Karjat, “It was love at first sight,” he admits. In 2004, when the land was being levelled, Ketan Mehta shot Mangal Pandey - The Rising at the upcoming studio. It took two years for the N D Studios to officially throw their gates open for business. The studio houses two sound-proof air-conditioned floors (where Saawariya and Big Brother were shot) in addition to permanent sets of 1600 feet of Bombay town square (Traffic Signal and Nike ad were shot here), Red Fort and Jaipur Fort ( extensive backdrop for Jodhaa Akbar) and the corporate office block (Lage Raho Munna Bhai ). There are make-up rooms, chalets and accomodation for the stars and crew. “I have a whole corporate floor where parties can sit and discuss unlike other studios where there is no place to sit down,” he says. The tag-line of the studio says “Where dreams come true” and Desai stresses, “Bring your ideas and we will give them wings.”

The “Seven Wonders Of The World” Park
His connection with Reliance - Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group collaboration has given a big fillip to Desai’s expansion plans - Big N D Studios is set to acquire an additional 228 acres. The extension plans will accomodate 12 sound stages, SFX facility, post production studios, processing labs and preview theatres. “It will be your script-to-screen shop,” he surmises”ADAG’s fibreoptics back-up will enable worlwide transmission of a movie,” he reflects dreamily.
During the shoot of Jodhaa Akbar, Hrithik Roshan would beat Mumbai’s traffic by taking a daily chopper ride to N D Studios, which has two helipads, “We have ordered for a twin-engine helicopter and when Michael Douglas is here next for shooting Racing The Monsoon he can use it,” says Desai. Also Johnny Depp could use it when he’s here for Mira Nair’s Shantaram.
Also on the anvil is a training academy for technical disciplines like editing, sound and camera.
Big N.D. Studios proposes to house an amusement park which will be a tour of the Seven Wonders Of The World alongside India’s foremost forts and palaces including the Taj Mahal. “It will cost you only Rs 999,” Desai says.