Inside Bollywood's most expensive film sets ever built
The Hindi film industry has long been a place where imagination meets concrete and steel. From sprawling palaces to fully realised ancient cities, Bollywood productions are famous for constructing physical worlds that rival any big studio. The most expensive sets ever built for Indian cinema are not mere backdrops; they are entire townships, sometimes lifted by hundreds of workers over months.
A single set on a historical epic can swallow up to a fifth of the production budget, and producers often fund them with help from corporate houses and overseas distributors. Australian fans might be surprised that some of this money flows back through rights sold to SBS Australia, which streams Hindi blockbusters for the large Indian diaspora in Harris Park across Western Sydney.
These grand builds have also travelled south through festival circuits. Films such as Jodhaa Akbar and Tanhaji have screened at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, giving local viewers a chance to admire craftsmanship often missed in standard television crops.
The Rajmahal palace reimagined for Jodhaa Akbar
In 2008, Ashutosh Gowariker's Jodhaa Akbar rebuilt the Rajmahal Palace of Rajasthan on an empty patch near Karjat. Carved jharokhas, painted marble floors and courtyards large enough to stage elephant processions were added one slab at a time under art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai.
The set reportedly cost close to ₹15 crore, roughly AUD 2.6 million at historical exchange rates. It was so meticulously detailed that it was reused in trailers long after the film wrapped. Royal family-controlled properties often deny commercial shoots and insurance costs at genuine forts can exceed the cost of building a replica, which is why Gowariker chose to construct.
An entire Indus Valley city for Mohenjo Daro
Ashutosh Gowariker's Mohenjo Daro (2016) recreated a 2016 BCE settlement along the Indus river, complete with raised granaries, mudbrick homes and a citadel that could be wheeled across the frame. Around 250 sets were raised at Ramoji Film City and other Hyderabad lots.
Set construction alone crossed ₹30 crore, leading trade press to call it the most expensive Indian historical set at the time. Camera cranes had to be re-engineered because no existing rig could rise above the layered citadel. The film underperformed, but the physical city remained an attraction and was reused in television serials and advertising shoots.
| Film | Year | Reported set cost (₹ crore) | Approx. AUD equivalent | Set build |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jodhaa Akbar | 2008 | 15 | 2.6 million | Rajmahal Palace replica |
| Mohenjo Daro | 2016 | 30 | 5.4 million | Indus Valley citadel |
| Bajirao Mastani | 2015 | 25 | 4.5 million | Peshwa palace with stepwell |
| Tanhaji | 2020 | 20 | 3.6 million | Kondhana Maratha fort |
| Kalank | 2019 | 22 | 4.0 million | Pre-Partition Lahore market |
| Bombay Velvet | 2015 | 35 | 6.4 million | 1960s Mumbai casino |
| Robot (Enthiran) | 2010 | 35 | 6.0 million | Robotic university and lab |
| Krrish 3 | 2013 | 40 | 7.1 million | Volcano lair and tropical island |
Forts and battlefields in Tanhaji
For Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior (2020), the team partnered with conceptual designer Ramalingam to raise multiple Maratha and Mughal fortifications. The most expensive build was the Kondhana fort, a sprawling recreation on the outskirts of Mumbai that took six months to dress.
Real charges of gunpowder, steel-clad war elephants and roughly 800 junior artists gave the climax a weight that visual effects alone could not match. Set costs were estimated near ₹20 crore, around AUD 3.6 million. The film resonated with viewers in Perth and Brisbane, where Indian community halls often arrange screenings of Maratha-themed epics.
The palatial splendour of Bajirao Mastani
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Bajirao Mastani (2015) is widely remembered for the Peshwa palace built inside Film City, Goregaon. Drawing from Rajasthani stepwells, Maharashtrian wooden carvings and Bundelkhand forts, the set sprawled across what looked like four full cricket pitches.
Bhansali insisted on 1,800 lighting units embedded directly into walls so flames could dance realistically during the war sequence. Set construction reportedly cost around ₹25 crore, close to AUD 4.5 million. Fans at advance screenings in Sydney's CBD often remark that the camera is almost always moving through palaces with no greenscreen in sight.
A reimagined old Lahore in Kalank
Karan Johar's Kalank (2019) tried to recapture the layered lanes of pre-Partition Lahore. Designer Sriram Iyengar raised a market square, two bridges and a haveli on the same Hyderabad lot once used for southern-language historicals.
The choice to build became clear during pre-production. Most surviving havelis lie across the border in Pakistan and Indian shoots are usually granted limited access by local heritage authorities. Constructing in Hyderabad allowed full creative control and round-the-clock shooting windows.
The underworld of Bombay Velvet
Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet (2015) tried to recreate 1960s Mumbai inside the same Ramoji Film City that later hosted Mohenjo Daro. Over 60 sets mimicked jazz clubs, leather shops and fight pits, including a multi-storey casino built from scratch with vintage lifts imported from the UK.
Set costs were reported near ₹35 crore, then the highest ever for a Hindi feature, or roughly AUD 6.4 million. The film flopped, but the build remained standing for years and was rented out to television crews. Australian tax incentives for co-productions through Screen Australia never directly applied, though several Australian art directors later consulted on similar retro set builds.
Futuristic worlds in Robot and Krrish 3
For Shankar's Enthiran (Robot) (2010) and Rakesh Roshan's Krrish 3 (2013), set budgets tilted toward engineering rather than craft. The former included a fully functioning humanoid laboratory, a green robotic assembly line and a metallic university campus that took 14 months to raise.
Krrish 3 added volcano labs, a volcanic lair and a tropical island base that referenced Sydney Harbour in some scenes. Its set budget approached ₹40 crore, or AUD 7.1 million, making it the most expensive fantasy set in Indian cinema at the time. Sound stages had to be climatised, similar to HVAC standards used in Australian studio lots in Moore Park, Sydney.
Factors driving the high cost of construction
- Heritage building techniques such as hand-carved jharokhas and marble inlay can take weeks per square metre.
- Scale often doubles when 4K digital cameras capture every flaw, forcing art directors to finish finer details.
- Insurance premiums and union pay rates for hundreds of daily-wage workers are now comparable to standards applied in Australian commercials.
- Transport charges for moving heavy set pieces across Mumbai, Hyderabad and Jaipur weigh heavily on the ledger.
- Import duty on metals, fibreglass and specialty paints has pushed producers toward in-house workshops.
Where these builds can be spotted today
- Several stone forts and palaces live on as tourist attractions in Rajasthan and Maharashtra after being partly built for a film.
- Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad runs tours that point out famous sets to visitors.
- Props and furniture from these productions appear in auctions held by dealers in Delhi's Chor Bazaar.
- Australian fans can catch restorations and shorts during the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne each year.
- Some Hyderabad sets are leased at hourly rates to South Indian filmmakers shooting period films.
Looking ahead, the next big build to watch is reportedly under construction near Mumbai for a pan-Indian period drama scheduled for 2026, with rumours of a full-scale Mughal garden and a fort wall rising this winter. Footage from the floor is expected to surface on streaming platforms early next year, and Australian distributors are already negotiating screening slots for a possible world premiere at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne in 2027.
