The Sajid duo came back in April with a sequel to their 2010 hit Housefull and wittily called it, Housefull 2. The comical caper got down to brass tacks feeding frenzied fans with 159 minutes of side-splitting entertainment. Interestingly, Housefull 2 was also the only Bollywood movie that featured reptiles this year, although since it was not reasonable to endanger the actors, the filmmakers roped in post-production experts Prime Focus to create CGI models of a python and an alligator that interacted with the actors. Mahesh Baria, VFX Supervisor of the film, led a team of a hundred artists to deliver 237 VFX shots in 35 days flat. Talking about working on the sequence, Mahesh says, "The trickiest part was when we cleaned up the existing prosthetic reptiles that were used on sets, we tracked and match-moved the prosthetics to sync with the live action material in the scene. The key was to make the creatures come alive on the screen."
Towards the end of the year, in December we saw Salman returning in his entire Chulbul Pandey splendor with Dabangg 2. To enhance the narrative, Prime Focus was roped in to deliver 950 visual effects shots of the film achieved through 120 artists. Talking about the experience, senior VFX supervisor, Reupal Rawal says, "It is a sheer visual spectacle achieved with a team of technical wizards, it was worth traveling the VFX journey of Dabangg 2."
As we get bombarded with more masala entertainers, in November we saw yet another film which called for gargantuan VFX work to augment its peppy narrative for Ajay Devgn's Son of Sardaar. Once again, Pixion Studios delivered a staggering 3800 VFX shots for the film. Talking about the work involved, Former VFX supervisor from Pixion Studios, Navin Paul says, "For this film we've used a horde of visual effects tools such, for example, the horse visible on screen was entirely modeled and made up using CG."
Barfi! In September, Read More">Anurag Basu’s Barfi! was a great example this year of how a sensitive subject could be handled with tact and elegance. The film was also chosen as India’s official entry to the Oscars. Mumbai based Pixion Studios was roped in to lend a voice to the silent yet animated Barfi with deliveringRead More
Barfi!
In September, Anurag Basu's Barfi! was a great example this year of how a sensitive subject could be handled with tact and elegance. The film was also chosen as India's official entry to the Oscars. Mumbai based Pixion Studios was roped in to lend a voice to the silent yet animated Barfi with delivering 500 visual effects shots for the film. Former Pixion VFX supervisor Prasad Sutar manned a team of 110 artists to accomplish the feat in just 45 days.
Darling of the masses, Salman Khan has made ardent fans throng theatres this August to watch his latest film, Ek Tha Tiger. The high octane action film that was shot across five countries was also the first Bollywood film to be shot in Dublin, Ireland, that had over 1200 shots digitally augmented by Tata Elxsi's Visual Computing Labs (VCL). Sixty artists worked through six and a half months to deliver the VFX for the film. Talking about the project, Pankaj Khandpur, Creative Director of VCL says, "An average film would have over 2000 - 3000 shots in it. In Ek Tha Tiger, we have over 1200 VFX shots, this comprises of a little less than half the number of shots that make up an entire movie."