Setting the stage

Rohan Sippy mixed and matched locations to get the perfect look for Nautanki Saala

Six years ago, Bluffmaster was shot extensively on outdoor locations in Mumbai. This time round, Rohan Sippy wanted to capture real locations for his romcom Nautanki Saala. "But shooting on real locations in Mumbai has become very difficult and expensive and the logistics were a nightmare. So I decided to skip that luxury and opted to shoot major portions on the set," says Sippy.

The theatre plays a pivotal role in the film since both Kunal Roy Kapur and Ayushmann Khurrana are stage actors.

"We put up two sets in Mumbai, one in Kandivili and the other at Mehboob Studio which matched with the interiors of South Mumbai's Liberty theatre auditorium and the exterior of Metro theatre. Thankfully, Nazir Hussain, the owner of Liberty gave us permission to capture the amazing structure and design which we mixed and matched with our set design. The entire set-up of Nautanki Saala was like fitting a jigsaw puzzle to make a perfect picture!" smiles the director.

As Sippy had staged a musical Love And All That Jazz in December 2011, the experience helped him to prepare for the film.

"Nautanki... is an on-stage, off-stage kind of comedy, but not a flashy one. Instead, the actors performances are the highlight of the film. Workshops were imperative and it entailed three weeks of script reading with all the actors involving a lot of improvisations and rehearsals. This helped us in the actual shooting and we completed it in 33 days," the director exclaims.

The cast also includes Pooja Salvi, Gaelyn Mendonca and Evelyn Sharma. Produced by Ramesh Sippy, Roopa De Choudhury, Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar, the film releases on April 12.

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