Watch | Thota Tharani: My work as art director remains the same irrespective of a film’s scale

Watch | Thota Tharani: My work as art director remains the same irrespective of a film’s scale

Thota Tharani’s hands are moving. It’s been a minute since we gave him a topic — the secret chamber of a queen — and the multiple award-winning art director’s mind is ticking fast.

He whips out a large notebook and carefully picks a pencil that has already been sharpened many times. He then brandishes a ruler — almost like one of those swords he drew for the recent Ponniyin Selvan movie — and gets to work.

Art director Thota Tharani
| Photo Credit:
Thamodharan Bharath

About five minutes pass, and silence fills the artist’s Thiruvanmiyur studio, stocked with paper, paint and pencils. Oblivious to the camera clicks of our photographer, or the chimes of his almost century-old clock, Tharani’s strokes fall deftly on paper. The secret chamber is ready, and it is rich in detail.

At 73, Thota Tharani has seen the winds of change blow in art and life. But he still shows no signs of slowing down. Art director for Mani Ratnam’s recent Ponniyin Selvan 2, Tharani is currently working towards putting together a show of his works. Excerpts from a chat:

Art director Thota Tharani
| Photo Credit:
Thamodharan Bharath

My start

During the summer holidays when I was around five, I chanced upon a Buddha in the puja almirah at home in Madras. I asked my mother for two annas, walked to a nearby shop, and boughtfour pieces of chalk. I ran back with them, and tried drawing on the floor. Seeing my fascination, my father (art director Thota Venkateshwara Rao) got me Dr Mehta’s free-hand drawing books, which I finished in two days. My mother would keep calling me to eat, but I would keep drawing….

My art

I loved studying, but changed three schools and ultimately, landed at Murthy’s Tutorial College, where I would keep drawing in the last bench even as classes went on. My dad took me to the College of Arts, Madras, where I met Srinivasulu, son of art director AK Sekar (who did Chandralekha). He asked me to join the Art Club there. Everyone was older, I was a bachcha. Rani Pooviah and PB Surendranath were my first teachers there.

Thota Tharani’s sketches for ‘Ponniyin Selvan 2’

My tryst with films

At first, my father was reluctant to take me to film sets. He kept telling me, ‘Why do you also want to come into this industry? You have to work day and night.’ But he did end up taking me; frequenting the sets of Idhaya Kamalam (1965)was when I seriously got into the industry. The routine then was to go to Hotel Gaylords at Mount Road where he had paan and I had caramel custard, after which we headed to Prasad Studio. The court set, the dance set, the house set…everything was done there. Then, for a Telugu film he was working on, my father had to design a couple of club sets where the heroine had to dance. The walls of these sets were empty, and so, I requested him if I could paint them. I remember going haywire with my art work on these walls, because, where else would an artist get such a big canvas to play with?

My work

All my films were not expensive.If someone else did the art production of the same project, chances were costs would shoot up. I was always a producers’ man, and that means that I was concentrating on things like how to give a great marble floor effect without the marble. I would opt for the original only for close-ups but for all wide shots, what you see will be something else that gives the same effect.

A file photo of Mani Ratnam, PC Sreeram and Thota Tharani on a film set

My inspirations for ‘Ponniyin Selvan’

Apart from inputs from Mani Ratnam, I got many historic details from Lakshmi and Jayakumar, both from Kalakshetra. Also, we have so many art in temples in Tamil Nadu that one lifetime is not enough to study them. Since childhood, I have visited many temples and observed their decor and idols. It has helped me while working on this period film. After the project was over, we all missed the shoot, and that doesn’t happen too often. Ponniyin Selvan is surely one of my best works and working on it was like a dream.

My projects

I am currently doing Chandramukhi 2 and a Telugu film with AM Ratnam titled Hari Hara Veera Mallu. There’s also another small Telugu film titled Shashtipoorthi. Irrespective of the scale of the project, my work as the art director remains the same.