Theme park · Walibi · Bollywood area · 2019

The Bollywood area.

An Indian world inside a European theme park — a Bollywood food truck, blue Mughal architecture, decorations hand-painted motif by motif.

Story

One act

An Indian world
brought to Europe.

Walibi — the European theme-park chain — opened a brand-new area entirely devoted to Bollywood India in 2019. We worked on the theming from January through June: architectural scenography, a Bollywood food truck named "Shiva's Truck", an onion-domed temple kiosk, the blue openwork entrance arch and decorations in authentic style down to the smallest detail.

The centrepiece is the "Shiva's Truck" food truck. We started from a raw welded sheet-metal body built in our workshops: a vintage van-truck silhouette, a cab with rounded windows, a square windscreen. Once the metal shell was closed, the work that lasted weeks began: we hand-painted every centimetre of the vehicle — floral bands on the panels, gilded frames, authentic Hindi lettering (आहार "aahar", food), rosettes, Mughal geometries, details lifted from real Indian truck decoration.

Above the truck, a pink openwork crown in Mughal style closes the roof, as if it were a mobile temple. Next to it, a tea kiosk with "Darjeeling Assam Nilgiri TEA" signs on a mustard background — a wing of Indian colonial streetscape.

For the fixed architecture, two two-storey buildings in Indo-Mughal style: saturated turquoise-blue walls, white balustrade balconies, lattice windows, onion-domed towers in pink and gold, Arab lanterns hanging from the posts. Village signage completes the illusion — "MAHARAJA Bike Rental & Repair" and "Tuk Tuk Tiger — Fast & Fierce" painted like vintage Mumbai posters.

The entrance portal of the area is a large openwork arch painted bright blue, fretted like an Indian piece of goldsmithery, supported by two sand-coloured Mughal columns with gilded domes. We lifted it into position with the crane in June 2019 — the last piece before the opening.

Ivano Ferrario, owner of Creation Art, on site at Walibi in the Bollywood area: white coat, glasses, blue glove, painting on the blue Shiva food truck decorated with Indian friezes; in the background the build-site ladder, the kiosk with the Hindi sign आहार 'aahar', the red TEA Darjeeling kiosk on the right — Ivano Ferrario on stage, painting the food truck

Side view of the completed Shiva's Truck: a wide side panel with a blue frame, Hindi lettering and 'SHIVA'S TRUCK' across a red central band, decorative rosettes, painted flowers, gilded edges, Mughal geometries, black wheels; above it the pink-magenta temple-style crenellation, with the park's architecture and coaster in the background — Shiva's Truck — side panel hand-painted

Crane installation of the entrance portal to the Bollywood area: a large blue openwork arch, fretted like Indian goldsmithery, lifted by a yellow crane between two sand-coloured Mughal columns with gilded domes; clear sky behind, build-site tools visible at the bottom — The blue arched portal, crane installation — June 2019

From the build site

From raw to
polychrome finish.

Four months of work to bring a slice of India inside the park. From welded sheet metal to the detail of a hand-painted flower.

Raw welded sheet-metal body inside the Creation Art workshops: a metal van-truck silhouette, a cab with three rectangular windows in the walls, a square pre-paint structure, the industrial workshop floor visible — The sheet-metal body, before painting

Front view of the finished blue food truck: a metallic-blue cab with two square windows, a large windscreen, round headlamps, a black grille, a front decoration of orange and gold flowers forming a kind of mandala; above it the pink-magenta openwork Mughal crown; an outdoor build site with a ladder and Ivano in the distance — The food truck from the front — finished, waiting for installation

Two-storey scenographic buildings in Indo-Mughal style installed at Walibi: saturated turquoise-blue walls, balconies with white balustrades, lattice windows, a central tower with a gilded onion dome, hanging Arab lanterns; in the foreground posters reading 'MAHARAJA Bike Rental & Repair' on yellow and 'Tuk Tuk Tiger Fast & Fierce' on red with a tiger — The Maharaja buildings — overall view

Mughal-style temple kiosk installed in the Bollywood area: a small violet-and-gold structure with a pink-magenta onion dome on top, a base in painted faux stone, the yellow walls of the building behind with a white 'FINAL SHOWINGS' sign, Hindu-temple-shaped entrance arches — Temple kiosk with onion dome

Behind the scenes

Four months of
authentic Indian painting.

Theme-park theming is not won on volume: it is won on detail. For Walibi's India we took four months of hand-painting to do the Mughal patterns, the floral mandalas, the Hindi lettering — the small things that make the visitor believe they are somewhere else.

The metal carpentry

The Shiva's Truck food truck is born in welded sheet metal in our workshops: a vintage van-truck silhouette, a cab with rounded windows, a square windscreen. The carpentry is real metal, not fibreglass, because the piece has to stand up to daily contact with park visitors and year-round outdoor exposure.

Motif-by-motif painting

Once the metal shell is closed, the work that lasts weeks begins: we hand-paint every centimetre of the vehicle — floral bands, gilded frames, authentic Hindi lettering (आहार aahar, "food"), Mughal rosettes, mandalas. No decals, no stencils: each motif is brushed on, the way an Indian craftsman would paint the family truck.

The Mughal architecture

The Maharaja buildings and the temple kiosk are built with our usual grammar: polystyrene plus fibreglass on the volumes, a faux lime-stone finish on the bases, pink-magenta onion domes in fibreglass with gilded details. The base colour — saturated turquoise — is chosen to survive the European sun year-round, without fading after the first winter.

6 months

from January to June 2019 — four of painting, two of assembly

scenographic pieces: food truck, two buildings, kiosk, portal, tea kiosk

By hand

every Bollywood motif brushed on, motif by motif

Tech sheet

All production data

Type: Scenography for a theme-park themed area · Bollywood-India setting
Client: Walibi theme park · Bollywood/India area
Production period: From January to June 2019 · spring-summer build site
Iconic piece: Shiva's Truck — Bollywood food truck entirely hand-painted · started from a raw welded sheet-metal body, completed with authentic Indian motifs (floral mandalas, Mughal geometries, Hindi lettering) and a pink openwork crown roof
Other elements: Two two-storey Maharaja buildings in Indo-Mughal style (saturated turquoise, onion domes, balustrades) · Temple kiosk with a Mughal onion dome on a faux-stone base · Entrance portal as a blue openwork arch held by sand-coloured Mughal columns with gilded domes · Tea kiosk "Darjeeling Assam Nilgiri" and hanging signs "Maharaja Bike Rental" and "Tuk Tuk Tiger"
Techniques: Raw welded sheet-metal carpentry · fibreglass finishes on the decoration · polychrome hand-painting for every Bollywood motif · trompe-l'œil vintage Indian posters · architecture practicable for theme-park use
Our role: Full delivery of the scenographic build for the Bollywood area — from the food truck's carpentry to its hand-painted decoration, from the signage to the kiosks, from the entrance portal to the Mughal architecture
Second life: Area opened summer 2019 and still on stage — the Shiva's Truck food truck is one of the park's photo-attractions

Second life

An India inside
a European park.

Walibi's Bollywood area opened in the summer of 2019 and has become one of the park's most recognisable photo spots. The Shiva's Truck food truck in particular is the "instagrammable" piece that closes the visit: guests stand in front of it, photograph its painted details, recognise it as a strange and specific object in the middle of standard rides.

For us it is the confirmation that high-quality theming in a European theme park goes through ethnographic detail: park operators build the big volumes (rides, coasters, mechanical attractions), and we build the cultural context that gives the area its identity — the "this isn't a ride in the middle of nowhere, it's a ride in the middle of Mumbai".