While Nitin Desai was synonymous with art direction in Hindi period films, he turned producer in 2002 with a devotional film. In 2011, he produced a biopic in Marathi on singer-stage actor Narayan Shripad Rajhans, famously known as Bal Gandharva. Subodh Bhave, who epitomised the role in the film—titled Balgandharva—reminisces about his collaboration with the art director-producer. “I had taken the concept to Nitin ji. Just 10 minutes [into reading] the story, he asked me when I could start. The next day, we began work on the film and were on set in three months. He was driven to make the film bigger and better,” says the actor.

Bhave shares that the team was often perplexed about matching Desai’s energy as he worked through the night after starting at 6 am. “[It was not easy] to catch up with his pace of work. He showed everyone a dream and helped us achieve it together without worrying about budget. Nothing was impossible [in his dictionary]. I have never seen a more passionate artiste, and I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to work with him,” recollects Bhave, who was set to team up with Desai again on a series based on Maharana Pratap. While the web show didn’t materialise, the actor had done a recce of the location [within the studio] with Desai for another project, last month. “I met him last month at his studio [to see] some locations and was supposed to return in a few weeks to finalise everything. I should have called him earlier. He is not the kind to be afraid of anything or accept defeat. Last year, a portion of his studio was gutted by fire. When I visited him, he had rebuilt [the area] better than before.”