The recently released film Homebound has been lauded for many reasons, foremost among them the authentic realism brought alive by its makers. One of the key architects of this authenticity is production designer Khyatee Kanchan. She began her journey as an assistant production designer in Dhoom 2 (2006). She later worked as a production designer in films like Ugly Aur Pagli (2008), Phoonk 2 (2009), Badmaash Company (2010), Maidaan (2024), etc. In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama, Khyatee Kanchan spoke about her work in Homebound.
EXCLUSIVE: Production designer Khyatee Kanchan reveals how she built Homebound’s world: “Ishaan Khatter and I discussed at length different ways to wash vessels…we avoided ROMANTICIZING poverty”
How did you come on board for Homebound?
I met director Neeraj Ghaywan almost 10 years ago for an ad film for British Airways called Fuelled By Love. We hit it off and ever since have collaborated on many TV commercials. So, at the beginning of 2024, he reached out to me for Homebound and as we know, the rest is history (smiles).
What was the brief given to you by Neeraj Ghaywan?
The brief was unpretentious. Every element should serve the story and not just be visually appealing. The key principle was focusing on emotional impact, avoiding an overwhelming design that detracts from the spiel, and using a cohesive visual language that supports the narrative.
The protagonists were poor. How did you ensure that their houses, place of work, or the Surat rented place looked real and yet cinematic? Was it tough to achieve the balance?
Yes, striking a balance is always delicate, especially when one is making a film about the underprivileged and marginalized. I personally believe in relatable production design, which is a rarity in our industry as we tend to over-emphasise or amplify. Romanticizing poverty hinders effective interventions and to avoid that, we used specific visual cues to create an authentic and grounded world. It was achieved by using a lot of real-world references that came from a cast immersion workshop in Hasanganj and the surrounding villages in Uttar Pradesh.
A well-designed set or space can create a sense of familiarity and emotional connection with the audience. For example, Chandan and Shoaib’s homes are designed to reflect their personality and history through the innate objects within them. The use of colours such as blue and orange creates a distinct visual language that supports the film’s subject matter and tones. I call it subliminal intervention of Props – the furniture, graphics, props, all of it tells a story. So much so that we would always have a discussion about the props placed in these spaces and their socio-economic relevance. From things like the kind of rice used to cook in their household to whether they will own an iron. Nothing in terms of design was in the spur of the moment. It was carefully considered, planned and crafted.
In the final scene, we see Vishal Jethwa’s family building their dream home. Since I have lived in Mumbai all my life, I was a bit surprised to see that they were building such a huge house with their limited savings! I am sure it’s possible to do so in that region, but was there a discussion in this regard or a change of mind on how to depict the house?
Chandan’s Family house indeed was a point of many discussions. For people from urban settings, it is difficult to imagine a house that big. But in rural India, it’s not as much about the size of the house but about how ‘pucca’ or solid the house is. It came to our notice during our location scouts that many village dwellers have moderately large houses. The government also helps build and provide schemes for pucca housing. In our case, we aimed to express the house as a metaphor – a goal, an aim, a desire – that is fulfilled by all of them in different ways and extents.
Any memorable experience of working with Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa and Janhvi Kapoor?
Production design definitely shapes stories in a very significant way because all the characters live in the world we build. In Homebound, the actors were really involved in how their spaces inspired them to bring the characters to life. Like when Ishaan, for the first time, entered his room, he was so motivated by the space. It was then clear that his room set the mood, tone and setting while reinforcing the character arc. They were all very lovely and collaborative, I would say.
Ishaan and I discussed at length different ways to wash bartans (vessels) for one scene in the office.
More Pages: Homebound Box Office Collection , Homebound Movie Review
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