A narrative is more than the sum of words strung together. To bring a story alive, enhance it, and give it a tangible character, visual element is paramount. Anindya Choudhary urf Bodo recognised this and chose to tread on the path of product design to meld his love for art, architecture, and storytelling using tools of design, motifs, and patterns. The result is a visual language that elevates a tale to knead its meaning to completion.
Growing up in the quaint town of Shillong, Bodo’s favourite pastime was optimising space in the form of rearranging furniture at home, foreshadowing his love for geometry, design, and interiors. As a product designer, he “creates an ambiance, a mood, or a setting that helps in telling a story. In a sense, we add personality to a space without spelling it out.” The field continues to fascinate him, even after 14 years. Having designed ad sets for Google, Hyundai, Levis, American Express, Nestle, Mountain Dew, Swiggy, Zomato, Tira, UpGrad, as well as short films like Next, Please, and Sound Proof with his creative boutique LineDori, he takes us behind the lens to explain the anatomy of a set.
DECODING VISION
Every project is different; there’s no one method. It starts with a brief that identifies the target audience. Important points are discussed, like location and timeline - whether it is a period setting, modern day, or futuristic. Based on this, we decide on the space we need to create. Then come the nitty-gritties: mood boards, colour swatches, material boards, sketches, floor plans, 3D views, etc.
DESIGN LANGUAGE
I love minimal design. I love clean straight lines and warm colour tones. I enjoy building large spaces or scaled-up versions of smaller things. Production design gives me the opportunity to be imaginative—it is my creative playground. It is a competitive field, which pushes me to experiment and create experiential sets. My team and I have created dynamic elements, like designing a set that has walls that move or slide to reveal an inner sanctum, larger-than-life geometric patterns that open and close like the lens of a camera, using LED screens to enhance the scene, etc. We keep the design process organic and fluid. Our design language evolves with the completion of each project. We keep on improvising and adding layers and layers to the set until we feel we have achieved what we set out to do.
LINEDORI
‘Dori’ means a thread, and ‘Line’ here means markings on the floor, which are made using a stretched dori that is dipped in coloured paint. A set is built based on these floor markings. We specialise in production design projects, be it a building set that mimics rural homes or chic apartments in a metropolis, ruins in the middle of the wilderness or high fashion spaces, an aircraft, or a train compartment. We are known for our work in advertising and now want to expand to cinema and create larger and more realistic spaces. We work with a lot of humility and honesty. That’s the only way to be relevant and attain longevity.
THE CHALLENGE OF THE DRAMA
Once, we had to build a huge cargo aircraft to scale for a leading beverage brand featuring Hrithik Roshan. We created a miniature model to help us visualise the space, understand its proportions, and be true to its design and interior aesthetics. It was important to make the overall set shoot-friendly, while staying true to the scale of aircraft. We made moving sections of the cargo aircraft that could be dismantled or resurrected to make space for the camera movement. To create drama, we experimented with material and surface finishes. We kept learning on the go, which meant constantly tweaking the structural built of the aircraft and slightly altering the placement of objects to optimise actors’ performance and the story flow.
THE INSPIRATION
For me, inspiration comes from multiple sources. It can be from the page of a culture magazine or from a trip somewhere. I take photographs of interesting elements or things that I come across during my travels — like an antique lamppost on a deserted street or a quirky door design. These become my visual notes or cues, in a sense. Inspiration comes to me at a subconscious level too. I chance upon inspiration while scrolling the web, watching a television show or a documentary.
Words Devyani Verma
Date 15.02.2024
