Looks like Telugu films are looking at Tamil Nadu for inspiration not just for themes alone.

Increasingly Telugu films are set in the backdrop of Tamil Nadu now.

Recently we had Sambha, the NTR Jr starrer, set in the temple and silk town of Kancheepuram. Previously we had several movies pictured in Chennai.

Now for the Mahesh Babu's latest flick they have gone the whole hog ----recreated an entire city in Tamil Nadu in all its glory and grandeur.

For Arjun (Maheshs new film), the producers have re-created the hoary town of Madurai with the gigantic Meenakshi Amman temple.

The set, put up at Gandipet here, is so real and life-like, that many have actually said that they have a feeling that it is indeed Madurai. The man behind this fabulous set is Thota Tharani, the only art director to have won a Padma Sri.

The set has come up at a whopping cost of Rs.four crore and it has taken nearly six months to build it ---- in terms of size it is approximately 350 feet by 200 feet (Just a few feet less than the original).

How did Tharani work on this gargantuan set? I made a drawing of the set in a fortnight as I was not given permission to photograph. I made several sketches of the place and then went on to work.

Tharani, who has won the National award for his painstaking re-creation of the Dharavi slum for the film Nayagan, is exactly no stranger for such real-like projects. He put up the eye-boggling apartment for the film Anjali. The Meenakshi Amman temple that he has come up with is said to be the biggest ever after the one that was built for Devdas.

Tharani says that his aim is to create things as close to reality as possible.

Perhaps, the Gods do feel so.

Somebody had told Tharani that he would soon build a temple. And soon Arjun and its famous set happened.

The Gods must be happy now.