The Three Bridge Mystery Of Raavan  Abishek Bachchan |
Production designer for the movie, Samir Chanda said “had to build three bridges - one for the actors' long shots that was 210 feet long, another for their close-ups at 70 feet and the third was 30 feet long for the actors’ leg work like running and falling”
It is believed that Mani Ratnam refused to budge from the place and continuously monitored the construction. Forty artisans were flown from Himachal Pradesh to finish the work.
Later it was stated by designer Chanda “Mani’s enthusiasm was like that of a child. We had first thought of building this bridge in Sri Lanka because they have the infrastructure and the experience of working in Hollywood units that required wooden bridges. Then we thought of building the bridge in Australia, and then South Africa. Finally I suggested we do it near Mumbai. Why spend crores when the same quality of construction is possible at a fraction of that cost?"
The unit members of the movie team had a difficult time in crossing the way to the bridges. There was mud and it was full of crawling crabs; however the beauty, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was sweetly taken in her hubby’s arms.
Chanda was however surrounded by some bad situations and opposed the rumors that the bridge was designed by a Mumbai-Worli based architect and not him.
He said "The bridge that you see in Raavan has been designed and constructed by me and my 40 brothers from Kulu-Manali," Chanda said.
"How can anyone take away credit from us? How can Mr Seshadri build a bridge that had to be designed according to cinematic specifications? It wasn't only about safety and architectural correctness but camera angles and actors' manoeuvring power. Also, the bridge had to look convincing as the actors fought on it. And then it had to look equally convincing being blown up," the designer added.
