Out with daggers

Game of Thrones has an India connection, and no it's not Indira Varma, who's nationality is British. No, this component is 100 per cent desi and made in India. It's the helmetsrs, shields, swords, spears, bows and arrows that you see in nearly every frame of the hit TV series. They look ancient, but they're actually crafted in Dehradun and Saharanpur by skilled craftspersons working for a company owned by a former armyman.

Forty-year-old Saurabh Mahajan took voluntary retirement from the army around 12 years ago to start his company which he calls Lord of Battles. Starting small with theatre props, Mahajan is now in the big league, supplying not just to hit TV shows such as Game of Thrones, but also to mega-budget Hollywood films like Assassin's Creed.

Oddly, Mahajan has not worked on a single desi film, although there are a number of mythological fantasy films such as Bahubali being made that are right up his street. "We are 100 per cent export-oriented. This may sound harsh, but the local film industry is more concerned with keeping costs down. In the West, producers take a lot of care to maintain a very high standard of authenticity and quality. They don't skimp on expenses — each of the Titanium chain mail collar in Assassin's Creed cost $150 while the Titanium chain mail shirt, $650. Besides, international producers pay on time."

So how did Mahajan, once a captain in the 6 Lancers Regiment of the Armoured Corp, find himself in this unusual business? "My father too was in the army. So I grew up being fascinated with the ceremonial aspects of the armed forces," he says. But chance too played a role — an accidental meeting with an Australian in charge of sourcing medieval helmets for a play, got Mahajan his first contract worth $1,500. There's been no looking back since. Mahajan's company has supplied to the Royal Shakespeare Company (stage show Le Morte D'Arthur), popular American TV shows Merlin and The Bastard Executioner, two Russian films called The Treasure of Lake Kaban and Kolovrat, and a French one called Medee.

In fact, business has picked up so much that Mahajan is now scouting for properties to set up an office in Los Angeles. He is especially proud of diverting business away from Ukraine, Czechoslovakia and Poland, which once dominated the weaponry props business. "Indian labour is cheaper," he says. He also credits the skill of the traditional Indian artisans; he has 130 full-time employees at his Dehradun and Saharanpur facilities, and another 70-75 who work from home. All of them make by hand and hand-stitch each prop, replicating designs from samples or photographs of real weapons obtained from museums and collections across the world.

"Nicole Young, the costume designer of Assassin's Creed was so happy with a chain mail collar that one of our workers, Vikram Singh Batwal, made, that she gifted him pound 200. In another case, Bartuli Ana, the costume designer of The Treasures of Lake Kaban was looking for gold coin replicas made of plastic — she wanted 30,000 of them. She was going to Ukraine and Poland, which specialise in these props, to get them. But we made them for one-third the price, saving her a trip to those countries," says Mahajan, the pride evident in his voice. Clearly, he has many reasons to feel proud.