Top 15 Bollywood Movie Sets That Had A Huge Budget. Check them out!

From the sets of Bajirao Mastani to Mughal-E-Azam, we bring to you their lavishly made interiors that made it to the headlines.

Top 15 Bollywood Movie Sets That Had A Huge Budget. Check them out! Set designing is an important part of story-telling in films. The world of Hindi cinema is larger than life, opulent and dreamlike. Producers invest huge funds in producing beautiful sets that take the movies to another level. The sets also are crucial in building the atmosphere and matching the vibe of each scene. Filmmakers focus highly on these sets so that these films that truly capture the essence of an era. From an engaging script to grabbing headlines for their expensive sets, a lot of hard work goes into making a good film.

It is for this reason that we decided to take a look at some of the most gorgeous and expensive sets ever created in Bollywood. Brace yourselves behind these massive structures with the following list that follows.

Top 15 Bollywood Movie Sets That Had A Huge Budget. Check them out! Have a look at some of these lavish Bollywood sets that contributed to the making of these films.

1) Bajirao Mastani

Top 15 Bollywood Movie: This period drama is shot in Aena Mahal where the director and the producers tried to make the sets from the aesthetics inspired from the Mughal-E-Azam period. The movie was to recreate the Maratha grandeur. 23 massive sets are also built after 8-9 years of research. As per reports the biggest challenge was to create Shaniwar Wada of Pune which doesn’t exist anymore. This structure is also re-created with a few architectural elements in Film City, Mumbai.  For the court room 50 feet high pillars were also constructed with water features on both sides. 20,000 designed mirrors are also designed alongside 13 chandeliers in the court room set. The team took more than a month to complete the set. Collectively these 23 sets cost more than 20 crores to be built perfectly.

2) Bombay Velvet

The Mumbai of the ’50s is re-created in Sri Lanka. The set designer took inspiration from existing buildings, photography, references from films museums and books on architecture to re-create Mumbai. This Anurag Kashyap film also made 43 Crore at the Box Office and received a lot of critical acclaims. The set makes cost a total of 15 Crore.

3) Padmaavat

This Bhansali directed period drama is known for the grand sets, gorgeous colours and luxurious accessories that made it look beautiful. The film is supposed to be shot at Chittor fort in Rajasthan but due to the protest and vandalism, the director had to re-create the fort in Mumbai where the cost of making the sets went up. The set also looked exactly like the original and the film all-in-all looked marvellous to watch. The designers took inspiration from old Rajasthani paintings as a reference for the fort. The fort also had a massive lighting set-up where 15 generators were used. The sets also cost a whopping 50+ Crore approx.

4) Bharat

‘Bharat’ is a 200-crore box office hit movie starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif. For also those who have seen the film it’s said that the sets designed for the movie cost almost 15 crores. The star-studded film had expensive and elaborate sets.

5) Jodha Akbar

Apart from the music and costumes, ‘Jodha Akbar’ is also known for its sets. Nitin Desai is the set designer of the movie which took pictures of Agra and Jaipur, using them as reference points. He magically created an exact copy of Amer fort in Karjat. The fort is built as huge as the 7th floor is built of concrete, fiber, asbestos, Scaffolding and pipes. The sets cost a whooping 20 Crore for the movie.

6) Thugs of Hindostan

‘Thugs of Hindustan’ had a stellar cast along with its massive sets. The set designers of this period drama worked for about 3 years before they went into action. The specially designed ships that weighed over 200 tons with the help of over 1000 people was the most expensive element of the film. The production house also spent a hefty amount on high-quality VFX. The sets cost almost 20 Crores to be perfect.

7) Raees

Shahrukh Khan’s ‘Raees’ is set in the early ’80-’90s in Gujarat. The makers had to re-create the cities of the bygone era. The director also asked for massive sets of the old city to be made in Mumbai’s film city. Special attention to fill the film which included houses buildings shops and clothes that resembled the 80’s. The efforts paid off as the film was noted as a commercial and critical success. It also became one of the highest grossing movies of 2017. The sets cost approximately more than 10 Crore.

8) Goliyon ki Raas Leela Ram-Leela

Top 15 Bollywood Movie: Released in 2013, this Sanjay Leela Bhansali dirceted period drama left the audience stunned again with the kind of sets. The sets looked authentic and he also created a small Gujarati village wot look acute to every minute detail that one would believe he shot in Gujarat. The song ‘Nagada Sang Dhol’ and ‘Ang laga de’ showed the grandeur of the film.

This movie featured massive sets depicting the Haveli Courtyard. Bhansali and the set the designer spent almost 2-3 months observing the location with references and drawings. As per reports, 90% of the film ended up being shot on set due to the difficulties to shoot action sequences in real locations. The massive set also cast approximately 20 Crores.

9) Prem Ratan Dhan Payo

Released in 2015, this movie is one of those expensive films that have ever been made in India. Director Suraj Barjatiya depicted an extravagant lifestyle of their characters and their repetition. He ordered huge and expensive sets to be built for this movie. It featured massive courts of Rajasthan but the makers also created the iconic Sheesh Mahal to shoot a certain scene in the film. Lights where an Important part and the budget for the illumination for the 258-day schedule was Rs 13-15 Crores. The movie had a budget of Rs. 90 Crore where the infrastructure cost more than 25 Crore.

10) Detective Byomkesh Bakshy

This period film is based on the fictional detective Byomkesh Bakshi against the backdrop of pre-Independent Calcutta in 1942. Dibakar Bannerjee created the atmosphere of a war-torn Calcutta with its vintage feel, old buildings, cars and trams envisioning the city of Joy. The film impressed the audience for its extremely detailed set designing which cost approximately more than 11 Crore.

11) Saawariya

This Sanjay Leela Bhansali creation had become the talk of the town for its expensive sets. The film featured a fictional fairytale-like city that is brought to the big screen right out of Bhansali’s imagination. Each frame looked breathtaking with magical sets. The sets had lakes, streets, shops, signages and a clock tower that Umang Kumar had designed. An entire city for a movie? The film is appreciated because of its beautiful set design. The sets cost approximately 13 Crores.

12) Welcome Back

For ‘Welcome Back’, Aneez Bazmi re-created Abu Dhabi’s emirates palace in Mumbai’s film city to shoot a special song ‘Tuti Bole Wedding Di’. The art director of the set was Sailesh Mahadik. He also took 20 days to complete it at the cost of Rs 5 Crores approximately.

13) Bahubali

Top 15 Bollywood Movie: One of the most visualizing and stunning films, Bahubali’s massive set was constructed at the Ramoji film city in Hyderabad. It resembled the city of Maheshmati in the film. It is one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful films that have one of the most expensive set budgets. For the interiors, the crew also took the decision to use mute colours to get the desired effect in the Digital intermediate. Approximately 30 crores are also spent in the process of getting these sets together.

14) Devdas

Sanjay Leela Bhansali put in almost 9 months of work into designing the sets and the visuals for the film. He also went on the represent Calcutta as it was in the 1930s. Building the sets took even longer than that. A massive figure also of almost 20 crores was spent on creating the sets out of which 12 crores was spent in making Chandramukhi’s Kotha alone. Another designed set was Paro’s haveli decorated with 122,000,008 pieces of stained glass. Bhansali’s efforts also paid off and ‘Devdas’ is one of the greatest films ever made.

15) Mughal-E-Azam

In 1960 this film is also considered one of the most expensive ones in India at that time. The set also had marvelled upon for its sheer size and its intricate design accuracy complete with pieces of Belgian glass. The whole set also took 2 years to be built and cost a whopping amount of Rs 1.5 million.

Top 15 Bollywood Movie Sets That Had A Huge Budget. Check them out! These were just a few examples of such movies with extraordinarily beautiful and expensive sets. Often it is overlooked how impressive these sets really are and the attention to detail put in behind these creations are massive. Next time you watch a movie with grand sets and extravagant lighting, be sure to appreciate the creative people/team who are responsible for bringing life to images of the filmmakers. Let us know which one is your favourite among the list or if we missed out on any obvious entry.

Also Read: Top 14 Bollywood movies that featured shockingly expensive costumes! (rbollywood.com)

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