The Making Of Waaji City

Sabu Cyril discusses the ambitious production design of Saaho that involved constructing a fictitious city of the gangsters

- Sangeetha Devi Dundoo

Some film units in Hyderabad have nicknamed Ramoji Film City (RFC) as Sabu Film City, since the acclaimed production designer Sabu Cyril has been helming multiple big-budget projects there in the last few years. The Mahishmati city centre he designed for S S Rajamouli’s Baahubali is now a tourist attraction. After the massive sets and factory-like production of weapons, thrones and chariots for the two-part film, Sabu’s team also worked on Netflix’s forthcoming web series, Baahubali: Before the Beginning.

Away from this period setting, more than two years ago Sabu began conceptualising and designing set pieces for the neo-futuristic, fictional ‘Waaji City’ for the 350-crore multilingual action extravaganza Saaho, releasing nationwide on August 30.

During the pre-production stage, the Saaho team was aware of its ambitious scale. If DC Comics had Gotham City to boast of, Saaho would create Waaji City — the den of dreaded gangsters.

Sabu had worked with 200 technicians for Baahubali, and the strength increased to 300 for