‘Behind the Scenes’ VFX making of Khiladi 786

“We had to shoot the principal actors, the jeep and the VFX elements in separate plates” The brief of it was to augment the action sequences in Khiladi 786, such as Akshay Kumar’s introduction shot. In this scene Akshay rams his Jeep into the gate; to facilitate the visual effects process of this scene, Read More">aRead More

"We had to shoot the principal actors, the jeep and the VFX elements in separate plates"
The brief of it was to augment the action sequences in Khiladi 786, such as Akshay Kumar's introduction shot. In this scene Akshay rams his Jeep into the gate; to facilitate the visual effects process of this scene, a crane was used as a rigging contraption where a Jeep was held up into position, going by the camera layout planned. The Jeep held up by the rig was used as a battering ram, where we actually broke the wooden gate. With this we accentuated the wooden debris bursting out, using Maya's dynamic particles simulation. This was a multi-layered scene, where we had to shoot the principal actors, the Jeep and the VFX elements in separate plates. We also added VFX like dirt and dust particles in the shots for effect, the multiple-plates along with the effects were merged and rendered to garner the final output visible on screen.

“The iron pole was placed as a reference point to confirm the twin’s position” Towards the end of the film where Akshay meets his long lost twin, was again was made possible through multi-layered composites. To accomplish the interaction, Read More">the three principal actors talking to Akshay Kumar’s twin were actually interacting with an iron pole.Read More

"The iron pole was placed as a reference point to confirm the twin's position"
Towards the end of the film where Akshay meets his long lost twin, was again was made possible through multi-layered composites. To accomplish the interaction, the three principal actors talking to Akshay Kumar's twin were actually interacting with an iron pole. The iron pole was placed as a reference point to confirm the twin's position on screen; Akshay changed into costume and enacted the scene as the long lost twin. The camera movements and the timing of the different plates shot were mirrored, composited and rendered to obtain the final output.

“While the CGI car was modeled, textured and animated in Maya” Another interesting shot in the climatic sequence where Akshay Kumar power-bombs Azad into a car that collapsed, called for a combination of VFX elements and camera tracking put together. The principal actor was shot separately, while the CGI car was modeled, Read More">textured and animatedRead More

"While the CGI car was modeled, textured and animated in Maya"
Another interesting shot in the climatic sequence where Akshay Kumar power-bombs Azad into a car that collapsed, called for a combination of VFX elements and camera tracking put together. The principal actor was shot separately, while the CGI car was modeled, textured and animated in Maya which consisted of a separate plate together. We merged the layers and synced the timing of the impact again, to add effect to the narrative of the scene. We also added FX fillers like dust particles.

“We ensured that we recreated the exact same location digitally” We carried out various set extensions such as the Haji Ali sequence, when Azad is freed from incarcerations and reconciles with Asin (Indu). It was not possible to shoot the scene at Haji Ali Road itself, Read More">as we were not granted permission. We shot theRead More

"We ensured that we recreated the exact same location digitally"
We carried out various set extensions such as the Haji Ali sequence, when Azad is freed from incarcerations and reconciles with Asin (Indu). It was not possible to shoot the scene at Haji Ali Road itself, as we were not granted permission. We shot the entire sequence at film city in Mumbai with all the principal actors across a chroma environment; we shot live action footage of various areas around Mumbai including Haji Ali, the same way we shot the scene with the principal actors. We ensured that we recreated the exact same location digitally. Chandrakant Shenoy, Matte Painter, accentuated the visuals further by creating matte paints as seen behind Akshay in the scene. Matching the night lighting conditions with the visual effects elements was challenging, the layers were later merged and finalized.

“The thugs attacking plate was shot at 48 frames per second” In the dhaba flashback scene, the protagonist trashes the thugs who attack them in a blinding quick fashion. To accentuate the scene, the thugs attacking plate was shot at 48 frames per second, Read More">while Akshay Kumar’s plate was shot at the normal 24 framesRead More

"The thugs attacking plate was shot at 48 frames per second"
In the dhaba flashback scene, the protagonist trashes the thugs who attack them in a blinding quick fashion. To accentuate the scene, the thugs attacking plate was shot at 48 frames per second, while Akshay Kumar's plate was shot at the normal 24 frames per second. This multiple composite scene involved around 8 live action plates where each attacker was shot separately where they were rigged up with wires that pulled them behind. This was done to capture the high speed action that was needed for this scene where the layers were merged and rendered out.