Pune: After four years of research on the mythical realm of Shambala, Bollywood art director and set designer Mahendra Potdar has recreated his interpretation of the legend at a Ganapati pandal in Sadashiv Peth.The pandal, commissioned by Shanipar Mandal Trust and Shaniwar Peth Mitra Mandal, takes visitors through an otherworldly landscape of caves, mythical figures and a rotating UFO at the centre, all under a snowfall-like setting.The mythical realm, known as Shambala in the Buddhist and Tibetan traditions as a hidden, spiritually advanced kingdom, is often referred to as a legendary place in the greater Himalayas. It does not have a location and hence its existence remains a matter of legend, belief and mystery.Potdar grew up in Pune and moved to Mumbai in 2012 to work in film art direction. He read two books about Shambala five years ago. Intrigued by the legend, he spent four years researching the mythical realm through books and podcasts. “Information about the city remains scattered in bits and pieces. People, however, don’t know where and what it is. That curiosity built up,” he said.He eventually used artificial intelligence to visually create a pandal of how he imagined the city.The process of turning that vision into a physical structure began about nine months before the festival. “I first worked out the ground plan and studied how visitors would move through the space. Detailed production and design followed, with construction beginning about three months before Ganeshotsav,” Potdar told TOI.The entrance leads into a cave-like structure, with the setting gradually revealing Shambala’s mythical world. Seven figures representing the Chiranjivis, including two lions and two snakes, have been created. Potdar said all these elements were constructed at the location.“About 50 people worked on creating the legend, including my Mumbai-based team of artists and technicians with experience ranging from 10 to 15 years. The construction used materials commonly employed in film sets, including thermocol, PoP, acrylic, rubber and wood,” said Potdar.The biggest technical challenge was positioning the UFO at the centre of the installation. “It has to rotate continuously, requiring the team to engineer a mechanism that could safely sustain the movement inside a crowded pandal. Creating that effect was considerably more difficult than constructing a conventional static set,” said Potdar.The team also worked on atmospheric effects. Snowflakes and dry ice are used to create a colder and otherworldly environment. Despite crowds, 10 air conditioners were helping to maintain a chill inside the pandal.“We wanted to make people feel as if they were entering the Himalayas. But the pandal stays crowded every day, so it was hard to create that effect. Still, we tried to keep it as cool as possible,” he said.His cinema experience has shaped how he approaches the Ganapati installation. Potdar has worked on film projects including Mardaani 2, Dishoom and JugJugg Jeeyo. After creating a mythical Dwarka-themed pandal for the same mandals two years ago, he wanted to take the installation to a new height this year.“When people keep seeing similar themes, they may get bored. Many mandals now create replicas of popular temples, so this time I wanted to break away from that and give people something interesting to experience, something that would make them curious and perhaps help them discover something they didn’t know about. Today, people look at everything through their phones, recording and photographing as they go. I wanted a pandal to be something that could not simply be captured on a phone screen, but had to be experienced in person,” Potdar said.
