Creating New York in Philadelphia 

By Money Sharma & Mrigank Dhaniwala, July 17, 2009 - 12:48 IST

Who would have guessed that one could shoot most parts of a film in Philadelphia and call it New York? A far cry from yesteryear's' films that used cardboard cut-outs for the sun and the moon, the art of visual effects (vfx) has progressed by leaps and bounds enabling filmmakers to use computer technology to save on crucial time and money.

John Abraham, Katrina Kaif and Neil Nitin Mukesh starrer New York (NY) , which chronicles the tale of three youngsters before and after the 9\11 attacks, has used extensive visual effects by vfx house TATA Elxsi Visual Computing Labs (VCL).

Speaking to Bollywood Hungama, VCL's Deepal Dass explained the vfx work in the film, "Apart from the challenging climax, there were lot of miscellaneous sequences in NY where extensive computer graphics (CG) was used. Many sequences were actually all shot in Philadelphia but we were meant to make it look like New York. The same involved extensive manual frame-by-frame rotoscopy."

In this exclusive case study, we bring you some of the exciting shots executed by TATA Elxsi VCL, courtesy VCL Creative Director Pankaj Khandpur and Yash Raj Films.

Click on the thumbnails below to check out the shot breakdown: