Bollywood dons visual effects halo

Four post-production studios collaborate for Drona; trend similar to Hollywood’s working

MUMBAI: Goldie Behl’s latest film Drona may have been declared a dud at the box-office, but audiences have come away impressed with its visual effects. Drona is Bollywood’s first film to employ the services of four domestic post-production houses.

Earlier this year, Prime Focus worked on Love Story 2050, wherein the work was distributed between Los Angeles-based Frantic Films and an Australian company Rising Sun Pictures, besides Prime Focus’ own studios in Hyderabad and Mumbai.

It’s a working model adopted since long by Hollywood, where multiple post-production studios work on a single project under a VFX supervisor for the purpose of saving time and money and using the collective wisdom and talent of many.

Eyecube, Future Works, Tata Elxsi and Pranaa are the studios which worked on Drona.

The trend marks Bollywood’s newfound seriousness about visual effects (VFX) that involves extensive detailing about VFX right from the scripting stages, and the will to complete it all within tight deadlines.

Furthermore, producers such as Eros, one of new corporates in Bollywood, in addition to Reliance ADAG, Studio18, UTV and Percept, demand strict review of the work in progress, which means animation or visual effects heavy films can’t be in the making for an endless period of time.

That’s one reason why Eyecube, the lead studio working on Drona, outsourced the VFX and post-production mandate to 3 other studios. A range of services were divided between them—right from the computer generated images (CGI), digital intermediate (DI), scanning, color correction, compositing among others.

There’s a good reason why Bollywood is adopting this approach. “These days almost every Hollywood film releases in India. So, audiences have become used to a great audio-visual experience and expect the same from Indian films. Moreover, the overseas markets are now demanding more Indian films; so Bollywood has to make sure that the visual effects, look and feel of every film is world class,” says Gaurav Gupta, CEO, Future Works.

Film-makers, therefore, can’t get away with shoddy work. The spread of digital cinema has ensured that grainy, shaky images are out, and the director can’t risk exposing the actor’s pimples on the big screen, neither can he risk allowing sunset to look like sunrise. Post-production houses have formed a significant part of the film business.

Apart from Future Works, which is a new player in the post-production business, existing players like Prime Focus, Pixion, Adlabs are scaling up their presence by offering services like editing, sound design, creating DVD support and subtitling.

“VFX, till one point of time, had become a commodity business. Out of two or more studios, producers would opt for a studio which offered the same service at cheaper rates,” says Pankaj Khandpur, creative director, Tata Elxsi. “But films like Drona do escalate the way we treat VFX as an industry. The film had about 1,600 shots, which were divided amongst four studios, under the supervision of VFX supervisor David Bush.”

This collaborative working model also marks a sea change in the way studios regard each other and the producer treats the studios, says Naresh Malik, CEO, Pixion. “Indian producers traditionally prefer one-stop shops, because then they can exercise better negotiating power. With 4-5 post-production studios, they cannot bargain that much. Specialisation is, therefore, a good thing for post-production studios, since it will allow everyone to bring something unique in the collaboration process,” he says.

Certain nuts and bolts still need to be tightened up, though. “A good reviewing mechanism is essential. The workflows are complicated and one studio’s work has to complement the other,” says Gupta of Future Works. Tata Elxsi’s Khandpur adds, “While we say that the studios are collaborating, unfortunately, there is no sense of interaction. We’re still operating within our four walls. Only when we share out creative work amongst each other will there be a sense of respect for each other.”

c_arcopol@dnaindia.net