Sound designer PM Satheesh, who worked on the recently released Baahubali, The Conclusion, has said that Bollywood cannot pull off a film like Baahubali, and that it lacks the discipline and dedication to production values that the southern film industry has.
In an interview with the Indian Express, he said:
“What we lack here (Bollywood) is discipline. Why is that stuff like Baahubali happening in Telugu cinema and is being pulled off wonderfully there because the money for the film of this sort goes into the production. It’s not eaten up by a few big stars. If you have a 600 crore-film in Mumbai, at max Rs 100 crore will go into the production, if you are lucky. Otherwise, everything is siphoned out to a few stars and people. In Baahubali, every penny has gone into the production that’s why it shows.”
Recommended
Satheesh, who has worked in both India and abroad, says he has had to struggle for even the basics when it comes to sound design in Hindi. “If you look at the sound budget of Baahubali, people in Bollywood will faint because they will not spend that kind of money for the quality. That’s a huge difference. We ask anything to the production of Baahubali, if that’s justified, if we can logically and rationally explain that to the producer or the director, it’s done. Nobody asks another question. But here, we have to struggle so much to convince them for the basics. So, you need to have an intention and a discipline to put that money into the production,” he said.
He also said that Rajamouli not only knew what he wanted from the film, he also knew what he didn’t want. When there were some scenes with less-than-perfect CGI, Rajamouli had no trouble cutting them out. Satheesh said that this attitude ensured that Baahubali became the film it is.
Satheesh will next work on a Saif Ali Khan film, currently titled Kalakandi, with Delhi Belly director Akshat Verma.