Breathing Lyari into a Bangkok Backlot
In a feat that underscores the power of production design, Dhurandhar transformed Bangkok into a sprawling replica of Lyari, a bustling, labyrinthine neighborhood known for its vibrant street life and layered storytelling. The project, split into two parts and shot across Bangkok, Mumbai, and Chandigarh, demanded a meticulous approach to texture, sound, and scale. Production designer Saini S Johray, a key architect of the look, recently spoke about how a single city became a living canvas for a story that travels across geographies while staying tethered to its core identity.
The ambition was clear from the outset: recreate the pulse of Lyari while preserving the visual cues that make the neighborhood instantly recognizable to audiences. Volunteers on set, along with a crew of 500 workers, worked around the clock for 20 days to map every alley, stairwell, and market stall. The result is not merely a visual homage but an immersive experience that invites viewers to sense the rhythm of life in a place that feels both familiar and freshly staged.
From Concept to Concrete: The Making of a City
Creating Lyari in Bangkok demanded a multi-layered workflow. First came the research phase—on-location studies in Mumbai and Chandigarh helped frame the look of the streets, the color palette, and the way light hit weathered brickwork. Then Johray led a design team that translated those findings into concrete sets, street-scale installations, and modular zones that could be reconfigured for different scenes across the two parts of the project.
One of the project’s defining decisions was to anchor the set in Bangkok’s real textures—its humid air, the yellows and browns of sun-baked walls, and the way cables and signage sag with age. But the team deliberately layered in Lyari-specific motifs: metal shutters, market stalls stacked with fruit and spice, and the intimate tightness of back-alley spaces. Each element was chosen to spark recognition while avoiding cliché, ensuring the space felt lived-in rather than crafted for a single shot.
2024’s Most Collaborative Set
Collaboration was essential. In the words of Johray, a well-coordinated production can feel like a city itself, with every department playing a neighborhood block. The team orchestrated practical effects, props, and wardrobe to sit naturally within the Bangkok landscape, while post-production work—color grading, sound design, and VFX—made the transition between the production’s three cities seamless. The result is a hybrid aesthetic: a Lyari-inspired milieu that carries Bangkok’s tropical light and Chandigarh’s architectural variety, stitched together by a consistent mood and tonal palette.
Behind the scenes, the scale was as much logistical as artistic. Twenty days of on-site work required tight scheduling, rapid decision-making, and a deep trust among departments. The 500 workers who labored on the build brought a sense of community to the production—an ensemble that mirrored Lyari’s own spirit on screen. The ambition extended beyond creating a static set; it was about engineering a space that could breathe with the characters’ journeys and reveal new textures with each take.
Why This Reimagining Matters
Lyari’s reimagining in Bangkok is more than an exercise in world-building; it’s a case study in how production design can expand a narrative horizon. By leveraging Bangkok’s urban fabric and overlaying Lyari’s cultural signatures, the team crafted a setting that supports intricate storytelling across two parts. Audiences encounter a world that feels both familiar in its human details and novel in its geographic scope, inviting repeated viewings to catch the subtler textures—from the way a market stall is stocked to the way light filters through a narrow passageway.
As viewers, we’re reminded that cities can be rehearsed and reshaped without erasing their essence. Dhurandhar’s Lyari in Bangkok is a reminder that location is not just a backdrop but a partner in narrative momentum—one that can be engineered with discipline, artistry, and an eye for the kind of texture that lingers long after the credits roll.
