Sharmista Roy

Aditya (Chopra) is very exacting and thorough. He knows precisely the colours he wants used and the moods he seeks to create.

Once I have my brief from him, it is entirely up to me to develop it to the extent I want. I find I have the necessary freedom to give free rein to my artistic talent in terms of aesthetics.

In fact, I work best when I am guided this way -- I can deliver exactly what the director wants. When there is no ambiguity in what the man at the megaphone wants, my job becomes that much easier.

Adi always insists on a scale-model before we start the actual putting up the set. That helps both him and me overcome any major glitches in the planning stage itself.

With Adi -- as with Karan Johar -- everything is planned down to the last detail. So there's not much time lost during the actual shooting itself.

Adi and Karan alike visit the sets often and are always hands-on. They are constantly involved in the the camera angles. And both have the flow of movement all worked out. So when the actual shooting starts, there are no halts or hitches.

Mohabbatein was a learning experience for me.

I had never put up sets of this dimension earlier.

The huge and imposing assembly hall, for instance, dominates the scene. Exactly the effect we had wanted to achieve. That was immensely satisfying.

Narayan Shankar's character was well-etched -- a cold and lonely, albeit learned, man. To illustrate and articulate this aspect of his characterisation effectively, we used a lot of stone in the office set. We also made the set huge so that Narayan Shankar would be dwarfed in it.

We had lots of fun looking for all the props that would go into that office set. We scanned the lungs of Bombay's Lohar Chawl for the props that would fit the cold Narayan Shankar to a T.

Each time we came across something that fit the bill, we would exclaim: "That fits him perfectly!" We scrounged around for odds and ends that would go with the man's overall picture. We finally settled on black-and-white photos and maps on the walls to lend authenticity to the scene.

The marketplace was a stark contrast to the gurukul. A place where you could relax and love could blossom -- away from the strict discipline of the gurukul. So we used bright and cheerful colours for that set.

As far the artistes go, I am more concerned with the characters they essay than the stars themselves.

If there is, say, a major height difference between the two, I would make certain imperceptible technical changes to the set to suit the two.

We put up some 13 or 14 sets for Mohabbatein. It is not in every film that sets on this scale are erected. It was exhilarating.

I would love to work with any director who dares me to do something different. There is no fun in mindlessly reproducing what you have already done.

Look, every day, I put up houses. The challenge is in 'individualising', in 'personalising' each house to suit the script and the characters in the narrative.

If someone were to tell me to reproduce what I had done in, say, Dil To Pagal Hai, where's the challenge?

That's why I love working with Adi and Karan. I know they always want to try out something new, that they will push me to learn and grow with them.

Sharmishta Roy spoke to Shilpa Bharatan Iyer

Part I: 'I would hate to see Vinod work with someone else'

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