‘I have made a larger-than-life fantasy film’ Ashish Mitra
Posted online: Sep 26, 2008 at 1655 hrs

Mumbai, September 26:: Goldie Behl on what went behind the making of Drona
What went into the conceptualisation of Drona?
Every living being on this planet is there for a certain purpose; they have their own destiny and have something in them that makes them special. May it be human, animal or plants - all have a purpose of their lives. I thought to myself, why not make a film of a young man who discovers what his true destiny is and what his demands are and what are his probabilities of life is. You see, these kinds of queries rise in every child’s mind.

What next?
On this basic idea, we decided to take things forward and make a larger-than-life fantasy film trying to go on the lines of comic books. I put in use all the influences that I have, may it be western cinema or oriental cinema, but overall I decided to give it an Indian but yet magical touch look.

How did you develop the story?
Well, once the idea was firm in my mind, I consulted Abhishek Bachchan whom I treat as my younger brother. He has, on several occasions, been my bouncing board for many ideas. When I thought of the story of this magnitude, it was natural that I consult him. Through consultations and discussions, everything fell in place and we were ready to go on the floors.

Was VFX in your mind when you set off?
Well, when we started, the kind of visual effects being used these days was not in my mind as I never had the inkling that VFX has grown up enormously. But when I got a hang of it, decided to use the tool. On the other hand, finance was also a constraint as we had limited resources. We kept on doing a lot of discussions and planned well in the pre-production stage. We also decided to handle most of the shots through cinematography followed by the usage of VFX technology. This process helped us to minimise our expenses.

How did you get in touch with David Bush, your VFX director?
I was indeed happy to be introduced to David Bush through my best friend Charles Darby whose studio EyeQube has done a lot of work for Drona. Fortunately when I met David, I had completed most of the drama portions while the VFX portions were yet to be done. Once David was on board, I had a meeting with my cinematographer Sameer Arya and David after which we planned of how to go about the VFX scenes.

You have used a number of facilities for DI and VFX.
Tata Elxi has done a lot of work for my film including the DI (Digital Intermediate) while most matting and other 3D jobs was done by EyeQube and Future Works. Prana Studios has also contributed a lot. Here, I must make a special mention of Arvind from Red Chillies, Pankaj from Tata Elxsi, Charles from EyeQube, Sameer from Prana for their mindblowing contribution of my film.

Would you want people to identify Drona for its content or for its magical moments created by VFX?
My film is an expensive film. Drona would be remembered for its content. In fact both the content and the VFX complement each other. If the content is strong, the VFX also has to be strong enough. Both can’t do without each other.