Chandrakant Kanthigavi

Bollywood Twister: Unfolding Emotions with Indian Cinema The aim of this competition is to design a 'Film City Tower' in Mumbai and explore the possibility of a new vertical typology for a film city. The project resolves to put Bombay and Bollywood on the global map through a futuristic and contemporary landmark for the city. There has been a large and continuous migration of people into Mumbai city with a hope of following their Bollywood dreams which has put pressure on land resource. The setting up of film cities requires an enormous footprint on land, which is a scarce and vital resource in the case of Bombay. The proposal for the land intensive function of a film city is to be compacted and transformed into a vertical tower that would generate an exemplary urban form. So the vertical film city frees up a lot of land and brings all the amenities and departments of the film fraternity at one place making the design efficient and sustainable. We are asked to design a new island for the Film City tower in the 'Mahim Bay', across the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, in Mumbai. The site island is located at a distance of approximately 100 meters off the BWSL promenade in the Mahim Bay waters, adjoining the Western Express highway. It is bounded by the Bandra Reclamation area to its north and west, Mahim and Worli to the far east and south respectively. RASA: The Rasa method of performance is one of the fundamental features that differentiate Indian cinema from that of the Western world. In the Rasa method, empathetic "emotions are conveyed by the performer and thus felt by the audience," in contrast to the Western Stanislavski method where the actor must become "a living, breathing embodiment of a character" rather than "simply conveying emotion." A rasa denotes an essential state of mind and is the dominant emotional theme of a work of art or the primary feeling that is evoked in the person that views, reads or hears such a work. NAVARASA: Rasa has been an important influence on the cinema of India. Our Design attempts to explore the navarasa are the emotions EXPRESSED BY face, HAND AND body MOVEMENT. Proposed Tower expression responds to all the Nine Rasas by its colour, Texture and Functions. SHOKA - SADNESS VEERA - HEROIC BHAYANAKA - HORROR BHIBHASTA - DISGUST ADBHUTA - WONDER KRODA - ANGER HASYA - JOY KARUNA - SYMPATHY PREMA - LOVE MUMBAI STREET: A variety of public functions in the tower that would greet the public with a panorama view of the city. The ramp which wraps around the Tower is a shift in conventions and brings the whole of Mumbai urban scape into its folds by encouraging social interaction and distribute the aspect of social and community spaces equally in a tower, which in most of the cases, is absent as the building rises up. The Twisting Ramp designed as Theme of Mumbai Streets connects all the Navarasas at all levels and performs with respective rasas. PANOROMIC VIEWS OF MUMBAI CAN BE EXPERIENCED OVER THESE vertical streets AT DIFFERENT LEVELS MAKING IT MORE EXPERIENTIAL. FACT FILE: Project name: Open International Competition : Film City Tower : Bollywood Re- Imagined. Location: The site island is approximately 100 meters off the BWSL promenade Mahim Bay,Mumbai. Project area: 1,10,000 Sq.ft. Client: Archasm is an online international architectural competition organizer. (Open Competition for Ideas only) Design team: 4site architects, Bangalore. TOP 50 entry among 283 entries across all countries. Chandrakant S Kanthigavi Principal Architect Rohit Baligidad Vidya Singri Sourabh Navani Ranjani N Varshith V N Nagarjun M Mohit Makhija Sagar Gupta