How Kajol became 2 feet tall for Alpenliebe

Visual Computing Labs (VCL), a division of Tata Elxsi Ltd., has added visual shimmer for a commercial for Alpenliebe, Read More">a flagship brand of Perfetti. The new TVC has the concept of ‘Role Reversal’ between human and monkey. The role of the monkey is played by Bollywood actress Kajol and the Madaari (the master) has aRead More

Visual Computing Labs (VCL), a division of Tata Elxsi Ltd., has added visual shimmer for a commercial for Alpenliebe, a flagship brand of Perfetti.

The new TVC has the concept of 'Role Reversal' between human and monkey. The role of the monkey is played by Bollywood actress Kajol and the Madaari (the master) has a monkey face. This 50 seconds commercial has been created by McCann Erickson, headed by the versatile Creative Director Prasoon Joshi.

Shot by Equinox Films, the commercial is based in rural Indian village where-in humans are in a monkey land. Kajol, the pet on a leash is forced to dance and entertain the madari and the other civilized primates in the village only to be rewarded with a mouth-watering Alpenliebe.

Speaking to Bollywood Hungama, Vishal Anand, VFX supervisor at VCL said, "There were close to fifty shots and twelve people working in the team. For us, the biggest challenge was to make Kajol and the madari more evident from other characters around."

In an exclusive making of the TVC, Bollywood Hungama gives you an in-depth look at how this role-reversal commercial was executed.

Here is the explanation of few key shots:

Madari makes Kajol dance

This shot where Kajol tries to reach for the candy, consists of two layers, the first layer consists of the primates where-in the main character's head was made up of a live prosthetics monkey head. The rest of the characters in the background had stockings on their heads with motion trackers and their heads were replaced with 3D geometry models of a monkey head. The fur on the faces were CGI. Kajol was shot in a second layer separately against a chroma background where in she appears to be about two feet tall. Both these layers were composited and merged later on.

Kajol plays with her dupatta This close-up shot of Kajol, where she plays with her dupatta, was shot using the same layer merging method. Three layers were used in this shot, Read More">the leash around Kajol neck was CGI. The Madari is holding a string in the live action layer and the CG layer of theRead More

Kajol plays with her dupatta

This close-up shot of Kajol, where she plays with her dupatta, was shot using the same layer merging method. Three layers were used in this shot, the leash around Kajol neck was CGI. The Madari is holding a string in the live action layer and the CG layer of the leash was fused with the other two live action plates.

Kajol dances for Candy The team at VCL maintained Kajol’ shrunken character, by shooting her in a separate layer against Chroma. The madari was shot on the sets separately. Both these layers were shot with the same camera compositions and merged later on in post which made it look seamless.

Kajol dances for Candy

The team at VCL maintained Kajol' shrunken character, by shooting her in a separate layer against Chroma. The madari was shot on the sets separately. Both these layers were shot with the same camera compositions and merged later on in post which made it look seamless.

Read More">The madari taunts Kajol This shot was taken on location behind film city in Mumbai where the characters in the backgrounds had stockings over their heads with trackers. The stockings were replaced with a 3D mesh of a monkey head. Kajol and the madari were shot on chroma backgrounds in separate layers as well. BothRead More

The madari taunts Kajol

This shot was taken on location behind film city in Mumbai where the characters in the backgrounds had stockings over their heads with trackers. The stockings were replaced with a 3D mesh of a monkey head. Kajol and the madari were shot on chroma backgrounds in separate layers as well. Both the two shots were merged and rendered to obtain the finished product.

Kajol gets her due Using a different camera composition, but the same methods, both Kajol and the madari were shot at different locations and the layers were merged to get the final output, like the previous shots.

Kajol gets her due

Using a different camera composition, but the same methods, both Kajol and the madari were shot at different locations and the layers were merged to get the final output, like the previous shots.