In spite of a frown from the conservatives, Sooni Taraporewala has gone ahead and done something that no other director would dare to do. The director has replicated a Parsi fire temple onscreen even though in real-life non-Parsis are not permitted inside one.
Her soon-to-be released film, Little Zizou will show for the first time on the screen how the inside of a fire temple looks like. The film has a sequence that shows Boman Irani and his reel-life daughter Dilshad Patel (both Parsis in real life too) visiting a fire temple and praying.
“For the first time non-Parsis will get to see the interiors of a fire temple and the authentic rituals held inside the fire temple will be shown on screen. It is the first film in India to show a fire temple.”
Sooni Taraporewala, the director of the film, said that she desperately wanted to shoot inside a fire temple but was refused permission. “Though we have extensively shot in baugs (colonies) in and around Mumbai, we didn’t get permission to shoot in the fire temple. Shooting inside the temple is not allowed. So, we had to create a set that was representative of a fire temple,” she said, adding that creating one was a painstaking process.
“Creating an elaborate set like that was ‘painstaking’. Luckily both the people in the shot were Parsis in real and they were well aware of the rituals. The entire ceremony and prayers that were shown are authentic.”
Original article here.