It's ironic that the old, historic city of Hyderabad should be so rapidly transformed into a city of the New Economy. Everybody knows about its software industry. Everybody also probably knows about its pharmaceutical players, like Dr Reddy's Labs and Shanta Biotech (reportedly the next contender for a NASDAQ Issue). But not everybody knows the developments that are taking place in the city's entertainment industry. Have you seen Ridley Scott's new sword'n'shield spectacle, Gladiator, for instance? If so, maybe you should know that the movie might not have been possible if not for the rescue work done by a task-force of set-makers from Hyderabad... or to be technically correct, from the village of Chinna Toopran, on the outskirts of the city. They were the ones who were ultimately responsible for creating all those magnificent old Roman columns, statues, thrones, urns, totems, fountains etc that you saw on screen (although, they looked so authentic that watching the movie you'd probably never ever believe it). Apparently, in early 1999, the production of Gladiator had hit a crisis point. It was behind schedule; a lot of the sets had to be scrapped because they were sub-standard; and a lot of the budget had been eaten up already by the rejected sets. It was then that production designer, Crispin Sallis, was called in to help save the production. Sallis called up the well-known Indian set designer, Nitish Roy, and asked him if he could help. World-class sets had to be created, but on a minuscule budget. And they had to be delivered to meet near-impossible deadlines. Nitish Roy had worked in Hyderabad at the Ramoji Film City before, and knew the city's set-making abilities: its talent pool of artists, sculptors, painters and mould-makers. Working with only a hastily collected library of coffee-table books on the Roman Empire and its architecture, Roy and his team worked out of a granite factory borrowed from a friend at Chinna Toopran. Apart from the budget and the deadline the set-makers were up against another constraint as well: their sets had to be created in such a way that they could be dismantled, so that they could be easily airlifted to Malta, Morocco and Britain, where the film was actually being shot. Working virtually round the clock, Roy and team finally delivered. And the rest (no pun intended) is history. Gladiator is likely to be up for a few Oscars next year -- including, quite possibly, for its spectacular art direction. It's a pity that the Hyderabad team doesn't feature in the movies' credits, but decency dictates that Ridley Scott should at least mention them when he makes his Oscar acceptance speech (along with the mandatory tributes to his mother, his wife, his art teacher in school, etc). The Chinna Toopran team deserves at least that much. So much for the upmarket, Oscar-winning, Ridley Scott end of the international movie business. But Hyderabad is making inroads into other points along the spectrum, as well. Over the past couple of years, for instance, B-Grade Hollywood producers have been discovering the joys (and economics) of producing their films at Hyderabad's Ramoji Film City. So far a couple of lowbrow international thrillers have been produced here, like Nightfall and Alligator. (If you haven't heard of them, don't worry. They won't exactly be reviewed by Pauline Kael, although they'll probably make a nice fat profit at the box office.) More international production teams are already on their way. And then, of course, Hyderabad has a world-class animation studio called Hearts, which employs nearly 200 animators, working to provide animation to Warner Brothers in the US. For too long Hyderabad was known merely for its tehzeeb, tameez and takalluf. But now, Hey, it's Show-time Folks! Anvar Alikhan is himself a creative director of no mean achievement. Tell us what you think of this diary
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