Our major problem was that we finished off all the other research for the film regarding the set up, including Gateway of India. We had planned what we could do because we had visual references, which was ok. We couldn't do anything with the hotel. Taj in itself has a lot of architectural importance in the way it's built, including the decor. So, we were left with no choice but to go to the hotel, stay there and understand the architecture, the elements which were there. We could take pictures as tourists. Taj has tourist runs for some people, so we had to stay there and take that tour to understand the place. We attended 3-4 sessions and clicked pictures like a tourist. We kept taking photographs and understood the sizes by making a person from our team stand in the pictures. That was a heavy task which we had to do. We had to study everything including the floor patterns, the railings of central halls, the central staircase which has Jamsetji Nuserwanji Tata's statue. We matched all elements including the carpets, lamps and corridors, rooms and other dimensions. We made our own blueprints and started creating it again. Taj has some predominant artifacts, so that had to also be recreated.
Building The Sets In Five Phases