Riteish Deshmukh turns designer

Architect-turned-actor Riteish Deshmukh recently used his creative skills to change the layout of a set — a bachelor’s pad — in Ekta Kapoor’s next, Kya Super Kool Hai Hum.

Architect-turned-actor Riteish Deshmukh recently used his creative skills to change the layout of a set — a bachelor’s pad — in Ekta Kapoor’s next, Kya Super Kool Hai Hum. Given his architectural background and experience as an actor, he realised that the set-up laid out wouldn’t work and gave creative inputs to spruce up the sets.

About the changes, Riteish reveals, “We were shooting the scene in a particular way and things weren’t working out. Once we changed the setting of the sofa and a few other items, there was more space for the camera and crew members to move around without bumping into each other or the furniture.”

Riteish adds that it helped that the entire layout of the house was not fixed, making it easier to move things around. A production hand adds, “The scene was based in a bachelor’s house in Mumbai.

Riteish contributed to the placement of the wall structure and arrangement of furniture. Everyone welcomed his ideas, including the director Sachin Yardi, art director Madhur Sarkar and co-star Tusshar Kapoor.”

Incidentally, the director wanted a cool room for the leads, a wannabe actor and a dog lover, in the film. Ritesh says, “The idea was to have many posters, lots of colour, clutter in certain areas yet having a neat feel to it. Madhur had even pinned up a cycle on the wall, which I thought was cool.”

“Madhur is an extraordinary talent. In fact, she inspires me to look at things differently. And it has been a while since I have been inspired by an art director,” says the actor.