Computer Graphics adds finesse to Saawariya 
By Screen Weekly, November 15, 2007 - 04:48 IST
Sanjay Leela Bhansali always has been associated with larger than life film sets. With the release of his latest film Saawariya, audiences got a taste of lavish sets too, which actually has apparently been shot only on sets and entirely inside a studio
The film is set in a time span of four nights in a make-believe town and since the town was an imaginery one, location scouting was not of any importance. Hence Bhansali created it inside a studio by erecting sets designed by Omang Kumar. But a set has its own limitations: viz how could one add depth to a set and make it look like a big town, have a stream flowing, show the characters moving around freely and even show the clouds and the moon all inside an enclosed studio? On its part, the opening shot was important because it establishes the fact that the city in which the entire film is set is not real, but it had to appear like it appears in a story book.
This is where Prime Focus’ visual effects team came into operation. Headed by Merzin Tavaria, creative head, VFX and animation, a team of 35 people worked on 80 shots of the film for as long as six months.Says Tavaria, “We met Bhansali one and a half years ago when he told us about the film but his only argument was to make the sets look real. On the other hand, he didn’t know anything about Computer Graphics (CG) before hand. But when he saw a sample test we made exclusively for him, he was more than satisfied and things started moving.
Our initial plan was to put sky, moon and a few set extensions by means of visual effects and give the film an outdoor feel but as work progressed, Bhansali’s interest in CG grew, until finally Bhansali decided to start his film with a shot created entirely on visual effects by means of 3D digital matte painting.”
While most of the CG work includes adding skies, removing and cleaning the studio from the background and set extensions, Tavaria elaborates some minute details that they have gone into, “You will also see dogs, horses, shadows, a man riding a bicycle, people standing at windows, a person shutting his car and entering his house. These small things go almost unnoticed but if it was not used the film would look empty,” he explains. Thus came about Bhansali’s belief and confidence in a new art form, which he has used to the fullest to realise his vision. “It is really encouraging when a director of Sanjay’s caliber comes forth to use visual effects to such an extent. Just the way Black raised the bar of DI (Digital Intermediate) in films, Saawariya will raise the bar for VFX in films,” concludes Tavaria. An impressed Ravi K. Chandran, Director of Photography of the film says,”Prime Focus is the perfect example of a next-generation post-production unit that is not only setting new industry standards with every new project, but is also able to meet multifarious, complex and specific requirements of a script.”
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