Production designer Avinash Kolla opens up about the massive scale of Ram Charan's Peddi, which is scheduled to hit the cinemas on June 4. In this conversation, he discusses the challenges of recreating 1980s Vizianagaram and his collaborative journey with director Buchi Babu.
"Peddi is a one-of-its-kind film. Sukumar sir mentioned that Charan’s performance here will surpass Rangasthalam, and that is purely due to the strength of the writing. By the time the movie ends, you will have traveled so deeply with his journey that you will leave the theater with tears in your eyes," Kolla says.
In my career, I have never felt this level of excitement for a story. When Buchi Babu Sana narrated it, I was moved so deeply that I couldn't even feel like myself for twenty minutes. We worked with incredible coordination throughout the project. He is a director who demands authenticity, and we even built a sugarcane factory from scratch that looks indistinguishable from the real thing. We spent over a year in pre-production alone. During that time, we built miniatures for every single set to ensure the vision was flawless before construction began.
We built 24 massive sets from the ground up, with nearly 70 distinct setups in total. For a film with such a huge star cast, you cannot simply travel to random locations. We needed everything under our control.
The main Vizianagaram set has been standing for a year now. We designed it to withstand all weather conditions so we could shoot whenever needed. Whether it was the street layouts, the iconic clock tower, or the hill station village we recreated at a booth bungalow in Hyderabad, the goal was the same. If the audience recognizes a set as a set, I have failed. These environments are so natural they feel like they’ve always been there.
The 1970s and 80s backdrop of Vizianagaram required a very specific texture. We shot everything in open grounds using natural light to maintain that raw feel. For the cricket sequences, it won’t feel like a cinematic spectacle. It will feel like you are sitting on the ridges of a field in your own village watching a local match. Even the bat the hero uses was designed to look like a desi player crafted it from raw materials. It’s those small details that make the world of Peddi come alive.
Working with Ram Charan was a fantastic experience. He appreciated every design, from the train setup to the special song sets. During a wrestling sequence in an action scene, he actually got injured. However, he returned to the set almost immediately because he didn't want us to lose the artists' dates. That shows his dedication. He has a very unique mannerism in this film, and we filmed a striking shot of him holding a mace in an underground wrestling arena. It’s a setup unlike anything seen before in cinema.
The sync I shared with cinematographer Rathnavelu was perfect. When the cinematographer and art director are on the same page, the visuals turn out seamless.
