Hollywood weapons: a niche market
SAHIBABAD, India – ON the outskirts of New Delhi, in a cramped concrete workshop where the air shimmers with the light of welding torches, an Indian businessman has become a master craftsman of Napoleonic swords and medieval chain mail armour, and World War II hand grenades and helmets.
From Hollywood war movies to Japanese Samurai films to battle re-enactments across Europe, Ashok Rai, 31, is one of the world’s go-to men for historic weapons and battle attire.
Rai’s workshop reverberates with the sounds of metal being hammered and beaten into chain mail, swords, axes, muskets, sabers, spears and helmets.
Rai, a trapshooting enthusiast, says he has been a history buff since childhood.
“I would watch every war movie that came to town. All my life, I’ve been reading up on all the major battles in history. Now when we make medieval battle gear it’s easy for me to explain to my craftsmen exactly what’s to be done.”
He dove into the business at age 17, when he heard a French champagne-maker needed 1,000 swords to give away as souvenirs.
Rai, whose father had a small factory making tourist handicrafts, travelled to the northern city of Amritsar, the holy city of the Sikh religion, to find sword-makers to make the replicas.
“It took some doing to get the order ready on time. But it got me thinking,” said Rai. “Here was a niche worth exploring.”
Soon, he dropped out of college, transforming his father’s company to specialise in battle attire and weapons stretching from the 10th century to World War II.
Shortly afterward, he said he had a surprise visit from film-makers preparing for the Tom Cruise movie The Last Samurai.
That led to dozens of orders for all kinds of props for historical movies and documentary films. From Napoleon-era swords, to American Revolutionary muskets and sabers, to World War II helmets and uniforms.
Rai was in business.
Other Hollywood blockbusters followed. He says he has made footwear for the Russell Crowe movie Robin Hood, and chain mail for Kingdom of Heaven, the Orlando Bloom film set during the 12th-century Crusades.
“We created 1,500 chain mail suit of armour,” for Kingdom of Heaven, using aluminum to keep the costumes light.
Around 500 workers, mostly women, riveted the links to form the armour. “Chain mail is very labour-intensive. Each link has to be riveted to the next,” he said.
These days, though, Rai is shifting from Hollywood to battle re-enactments. It’s a big business, particularly in Europe, and unlike Hollywood — where weapons are made just to look good, and often are made from lightweight metal or plastic — he likes making weapons that have the heft of the originals.
Rai has set up his own company in Germany to market battle gear to re-enactors and medieval fairs, and tied up with a Spanish company to rent uniforms and equipment to documentary film-makers.