Exclusive! Shiuli Thukral: Was difficult to be a production designer as it’s assumed to be a man’s world

What would a Hindi film be without its sets simple or sprawling And what would those sets be without a production designer In an exclusive interview with middaycom Shiuli Thukral a production designer who has created the sets of films like Shiddat Oye Lucky Lucky Oye Kartik Calling Kartik and I Me Aur Main spoke about her journey what challenges she had to face in her career and what the process of creating sets looks likeTake us through your journey from being a graphic designing intern to a production designer handling filmsIt has been quiet a journey thankfully not a complicated one since I had decided to be a production designer when I was 14 years old Design was always a part of my life When I was little I used to be very interested in spaces Interior designing was the only thing at that time that people could recommend to you So right after my 12th board exams I got an internship with a very senior production designer whorsquos active even today called Sumit Basu He mentored me At the same time I used to visit the office of the other production designer in Delhi called Amardeep Bahl So I have two gurus In my final year of internship I went to Amardeep Bahlrsquos office and he handed me my first film and asked me to come to Bombay and thatrsquos how I got into production designing because he pushed me right into the deep end and said ldquoAb aap sambhalordquo And I was 18 or 19 years old at that timeWhat are the struggles you faced when you first started out as a production designerI think when I was starting out back in the day around 15 years ago because itrsquos such a laborious job itrsquos assumed that it could be a manrsquos world Mardon ki duniya hai and all of that so the natural assumption was that therersquos no place for women I wouldnrsquot say it was sexism to that point but it was difficult But thankfully for me when I walked into the industry there was a film called Dil Chahta Hai and Suzanne was the production designer for it Then you started to notice there were a lot more women coming into the industry and today if you notice there are so many women production designers Because everyone probably at some point had to prove to a manrsquos world that even women can do this job as it involves construction and certain amount of labour We can also lead a team currently the ratio of men and women in my team is very wide most of the members of my team are all men my carpenters my painters my assistants and I have two or three female assistants But the number of women in this department has increased multifold So the sexism that we talk about is now decreasingAlso Read Radhika Madan Problem is in glorifying a toxic characterDo you see any revolution in Bollywood since a lot of female production designers are now working in filmsThings have changed so much and in a good way The kind of films that were being made before to the kind of subjects that we are picking up today every artist has a space in the film industry It has opened up doors for people And that brings about a revolution in the industry when you start paving way for different films Nobody is trying to put you in a box anymore or saying lsquoAise hi kaam karte hainrsquo It started with films but now with OTT it has opened even more doors Everybody gets to do what they want to do and it has opened up opportunities for people So yes therersquos been a massive revolution With me there are certain kinds of subjects that I donrsquot associate with I have to be emotionally involved while Irsquom doing a film or any sort of work because I do get emotionally involved when Irsquom working so today I get that opportunity and option and everyone else is getting those optionsYou recreated Europe in India for Shiddat What was the process like Oh my god it was very exciting One set construction in itself is a very exciting thing And when you have to recreate real places itrsquos even more exciting So if I go back to my first internship with Sumit Basu thatrsquos when I realised what one can do He was working on a film at that time called The Curse of Tutankhamuns Tomb and I was interning with him at that time Thatrsquos when I realised what one can do with sets and real places because he recreated the entire Tutankhamunrsquos Tomb at Mehboob Studios in Mumbai These are very exciting things to do and the whole process is very exciting The amount of detailing that goes into it and everyone comes hands on My whole team was hands on because even for a lot of people who hadnrsquot visited that place the entire process was to creating that visionHow are you coping up with the post pandemic challenges in creating movie sets Are there a lot of restrictions nowThere are restrictions right now the restrictions are getting removed over a period of time but yes there are restrictions and one has to be super duper careful The number of people I can have on my sets has been reduced There was a time when I used to work with 100 people but now I have to cut them down to half And it has become a challenge for the production houses to manage it The pandemic has got in a lot of discipline but the timelines are more constrained and the number of manpower has become more constrained We canrsquot be blaseacute about the whole thing and say lsquoKuch bhi chalegarsquo We have to be more disciplined So in a way itrsquos challenging for people who donrsquot like discipline but this new discipline had to come in The same job that could take you three days now often I have to ask for five because of the manpower or the time limitations or the cut offs We have to work within a system nowAlso Read Exclusive Video When Im in love I hear violins in background says Radhika