Yash Raj Films VFX head Sherry Barda reveals how they created entire city in visual effects for Pathaan | Exclusive

Over the last few years, visual effects and CGI in Indian films have made giant leaps. While the odd film may still have less-than-perfect VFX, by and large, the quality of visual effects in Indian films has grown substantially. As the head of Yash Raj Films’ visual effects unit yFX, Sherry Bharda has seen the changes in the industry closely. In an exclusive interaction with DNA, Sherry talks about the growth of VFX in India, the road ahead, and what went into the VFX work of films like Pathaan.

How far do you feel the Indian VFX industry has come in the last few years in terms of quality?

I have seen enormous growth because of the pandemic. Due to exposure to global cinema, people have become more aware of visual effects. They have understood what it means to investing time and money in getting good VFX. You are seeing a revolution where not only is the quality of VFX become better but filmmakers have realised the benefits of using visual effects against expensive sets.

You make an interesting point about filmmakers opting for VFX solutions over using sets that may be more expensive or time taking. Do you see this happening increasingly in future?

For a long time, visual effect was used as a jugaad or filler. Now, suddenly to see that it has a seat at the table with people investing in pre-visualisation, it feels phenomenal. And yes, absolutely, I see more of this happening in the future that VFX and CGI will help create sets because there is no other way to do it. I am seeing at YFX that every film is becoming larger and more complex. At some point, it just doesn’t make any practical sense to make these lavish physical sets. Once we have the trust and faith of the director and cinematographer, you can go the CGI and VFX route. And sets always have their limitations. But in the virtual world, you are free to do what you want. Technology is advancing so rapidly that the chances of it not looking photo-real are becoming less than they were a few years ago.

We saw the use of CGI and VFX to create the ‘sets’ in Pathaan recently. In a project as big and as heavily-anticipated as that, what is the pressure like to be on point and not go wrong? Especially because you know that even one misstep will be dissected today on social media.

That is a constant challenge especially when you have to come in and go out of a sequence that has 100 shots of live action, followed by CG plug. If it looks less than perfect, it will be pointed out. That is always a stress factor. The great thing of being associated with Yash Raj Films is that you have your director, production designer and cinematographer right there on the floor interacting with you right from the beginning. In the end, we leave stuff out because everyone is so concerned about visual perfection that you don’t want the smallest chance of impacting that. And a lot of the social media comments are picked up and we use it as post-mortem of things that we could have done better. It is the process of learning, however much it may hurt.

Talking about recent work, Pathaan was the biggest project your team had handled in a while. Which was the one sequence in the film that gave you guys your biggest challenge?

That would be the Dubai sequence because it was partly shot during the pandemic. Then, they had to do a lot of those pickups in visual effects which was not intended. We had to then, actually recreate Dubai city, match back the lighting with a lot of the stuff that had been shot. Siddharth Anand wanted death-defying action with high octane energy. Obviously, the actors can’t shoot at 100 miles per hour. There, we had to come in and give that sense of speed and high octane pace. That was really challenging for us because it was an entire city that had to be recreated and matched back to live action that was actually there.

There was a time when VFX in India was limited to science fiction or fantasy films. Over time, it has come to big action films as well. When do we see it permeate to ‘smaller’ films as well?

One of the things in that revolution that I earlier talked about is that VFX and CGI today are not being used only for big action films and other similar films. The exposure, the ability in understanding VFX as a tool of filmmaking has grown so much that these indie filmmakers are also able to lean on it and use it so well.

You were recently invited by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (which gives away teh Oscars) to be a member. What does that mean to you?

It is an honour, a chance to interact with the best in the industry across the world, an opportunity for us to be close to the action and understand how the very big budget films are being made. You have front row seats to that. From that perspective, it is a truly learning experience.