Here’s how Varun – Alia’s Kalank was made into a grand masterpiece

Director Abhishek Varman’s magnum opus Kalank is all set to release on April 17. While there are too many aspects of this film making it to the headlines, the one thing that stands out is the set design of the film which looks absolutely regal. The sets are designed by Amrita Mahal Nakai, and as the team gears up for the release, Amrita gives us insights from the process that went into the making of the world of Kalank.

Kalank has been in the pipeline for a very long time. Amrita began working on the sets in late 2016. According to her, it was Abhishek’s vision that helped her a lot and the script had left no space for error. There are many sets involved in the making of the film, and Amrita fondly talks about the Hira Mandi set which is a famous market in Lahore. Inspired by the 1940s Hira Mandi, Amrita tried to bring back the glory and sparkle it used to be in. The glimpse of the same set can be seen in the video of the song First Class. Colour palette plays a very important role in a period film. While talking about the same, Amrita said, “We have shown restraint in the use of colours, so that it doesn’t look jarring. We have taken our liberties, but well within the canvas of the film. Red colour has been used extensively in Kalank. It’s a strong colour and is pretty much there in every frame of the film. We used various shades of it. Hira Mandi is the most vibrant of all the sets, so we used colours depicting the same.”

With big responsibilities come big challenges and Amrita too faced her share of challenges. “To make Abhishek’s vision real was a challenge. In today’s day and age, people are hardly putting up grand sets. They rely more on VFX to make sets look grand, but we built a set to give it a more realistic look. Of course, the makers will be using visual effects to enhance scenes, but we have kept it as real as possible. This would probably be the largest set I have ever designed.”