Anand Sai Interview: Why He Returned After 13 Years

Veteran art director Anand Sai is making a strong comeback to films with Ustaad Bhagat Singh after staying away from cinema for more than a decade. During this gap, he focused on spiritual projects like temple architecture, including the famous Yadadri Temple.

Sai says art direction is not just about building sets, but about matching colors, lighting, and the overall visual mood. He believes every frame should look like a painting and always works closely with the cameraman to achieve that effect.

Interestingly, Pawan Kalyan played a key role in pushing Sai towards this field during their younger days. That connection has now come full circle with this film.

For Ustaad Bhagat Singh, Sai has designed some grand sets. These include a massive dance floor with an opera style design, a huge forest setup built with the help of over 1000 workers, and a detailed street set inspired by areas near Charminar.

Despite modern technology, Sai prefers hand drawn sketches over AI tools. He believes real sets bring better depth than heavy VFX and says visual effects should only support, not dominate.

After years of working on temples, Sai admits he missed cinema. Now, working again with Pawan Kalyan and director Harish Shankar has brought back his passion. His return is expected to add strong visual richness to the film.