Our Inspiration
Ram Yedekar - popularly known as Ram Dada - was one of the finest Art Directors of his era, working across both Indian and international cinema. From Sholay and Guide to Gandhi, A Passage to India, and Octopussy, his work shaped some of the most iconic visual worlds in film history. The dream of Darshan Productions was born from his legacy.
The Journey
Ram Yedekar began his career in the early 1960s and quickly became the art director of choice for the finest filmmakers in Indian cinema. Over four decades he collaborated with Raj Khosla, Ramesh Sippy, Vijay Anand, Yash Johar, Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, and Ram Gabale - designing the look of films that have since entered the canon of Indian classics.
His genius was recognised internationally early. He worked on Nine Hours to Rama and Maya in the early 1960s - both major international productions shot in India. In 1963, he won the Filmfare Best Art Director Award for Son of India. In 1976, the Bengal Film Journalists’ Association recognised his work on Sholay with another Best Art Director award - cementing his place as the leading production designer of his generation.
His Indian filmography includes Guide, Sholay, Yeh Raaste Pyar Ke, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Kache Dhaage, Dostana, and Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki. His international credits include Gandhi, The Far Pavilions, Heat and Dust, A Passage to India, Octopussy, The Perfect Murder, and The Deceivers.
Masterpieces
For art directors, Sholay remains the benchmark. Director Ramesh Sippy and Ram Yedekar made a deliberate choice to avoid Rajasthan and search for new locales in South India. Ram Dada led the team to Ramanagara, near Bengaluru, where he built the entire village of Ramgarh in the middle of boulders and open scrub. The build took nearly a year. In an era before CGI, the lived-in realism of Ramgarh remains his most studied achievement and an Indian production-design landmark.
Award badge: Best Art Director • BFJA, 1976
Eight Oscars, One Bollywood Tradition Body: Richard Attenborough's Gandhi won eight Academy Awards at the 55th Oscars in 1983, including Best Art Direction. Ram Yedekar served on the art department under Stuart Craig - the late Oscar-winning production designer who later designed all eight Harry Potter films. Accepting his Oscar, Craig publicly thanked Ram by name, later saying: “Ram Yedekar was straight from the Bollywood tradition, but he was the most terrific man for us."
Award badge: Academy Award (team) • Best Art Direction, 1983
A Visual Adaptation of R. K. Narayan Body: Guide is the 1965 romantic drama directed by Vijay Anand, based on R. K. Narayan’s novel The Guide, starring Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman. The film became both a box-office and critical landmark - Time magazine later ranked it Number Four among the greatest Bollywood classics - and S. D. Burman’s score, paired with Ram Yedekar’s evocative sets, remains one of the most celebrated marriages of music and design in Hindi cinema.
The Original Dacoit Drama Body: Directed by Raj Khosla with art direction by Ram Yedekar, Mera Gaon Mera Desh paired Dharmendra with Vinod Khanna's now-iconic villain. The film was a major box-office success and is widely regarded as the direct stylistic ancestor of Sholay - which Yedekar would design four years later.
The Legacy
Despite working with the most celebrated directors of his time, Ram Yedekar remained a quiet, humble man - known to everyone on every set simply as Ram Dada or Ram Uncle. He collected fables and folk stories from around the world. He read widely about ancient cultures and Indian philosophy. He held himself to the standard of every craftsman before him. His mantra was simple: “Dream big, and be ready to work hard for your dreams.” He passed away on 24 July 2000.
The Vision Continues
Ram Yedekar was the father-in-law of Shrikant Desai, MD of the Darshan Group. The two were less in-laws and more father and son. Dada would often regale Shrikant with anecdotes from his sets - from Sholay’s Ramgarh to Gandhi’s Oscar night - and the two promised they would one day produce films together. In 2017, Shrikant founded Darshan Productions in Belagavi as a tribute. Every frame we produce carries Ram Dada’s blessing.
Explore Our FilmsRam Yedekar - known as Ram Dada - was one of India’s most celebrated art directors, working from the early 1960s until his death in 2000. He designed sets for Sholay, Guide, Gandhi, A Passage to India, Octopussy, and many other landmark films.
He won the Filmfare Best Art Director Award in 1963 for Son of India, and the Bengal Film Journalists’ Association Best Art Director Award in 1976 for Sholay. He was also part of the Oscar-winning art department of Gandhi (1983).
Ram Yedekar was the father-in-law of Shrikant Desai, founder of Darshan Productions. After Ram Dada’s death in 2000, Shrikant established the Belagavi-based film production house in 2017 as a tribute to his vision and craft.