Madhu Sudhanan is one of the pioneers of the Indian Visual effects and computer animation industry. He earlier produced several TV Commercials and Corporate Films before he started working on motion pictures. He is serving the global visual effects and animation industry for the past 19 years.
Madhu has produced visual effects for more than 70 Indian motion pictures and several TV commercials. He was instrumental in highlighting India’s artistic skills by supervising few shots in The Lord Of The Rings – The Return of The King which ultimately won Academy awards for best visual effects.
His recent work on Vishwaroopam created waves and currently filmed Vishwaroopam 2 and Uttama Villian for the legendary star Shri.Kamal Haasan. Madhu has very rich experience in Hollywood, UK, Australia and New Zealand film industries.
AnimationXpress.com got Madhu talking about the upcoming Animation Masters Summit organized by Toonz Animation and here is what he had to say…
What is the session that you will be taking at the Master’s Summit and what will you be ideally covering in the session?
Basically would like to share about my experience in Visual Effects in India and in Hollywood. Run through some samples of the past.
What are the things that you expect to see at a gathering of such proportions?
Sharing the wealth of experience of the Masters with industry colleagues will help both ways. Sometimes when you come across certain questions from the audience it surprises even the Masters regardless of the experience. I have come across similar situations many a times.
How does it feel to be a ‘Master’?
Well, I am not a Master yet. I am still learning. I don’t think or see myself to be called as a Master, as I am still a student of the trade. I would encourage my industry colleagues and film makers to attend this because it compliments both. The film makers understand the potential of opportunities and the same time the industry colleagues will understand the common problems that they may encounter all the time.
What are your views on the current scene in the animation industry in India? How can it be bettered?
I don’t understand why we call it as Animation Industry still, instead of CGI. Animation is one of the verticals as VFX or Gaming. Under CGI, VFX has gone forward exponentially and our Indian artists are almost there to match with any Hollywood outputs. The problem is that we are working on thinner budgets and tighter deadlines. We cant blame the film industry as they have another reason about addressing their markets. Its more of regional markets and the film makers succumb to the pressure of budget.
Listen, let me be honest, if you throw peanuts you get only monkeys and that doesn’t reflect our industry skills. We are and we can match anything that you see in Hollywood films. Its just that our film makers want that quality but at a fraction of a cost. It’s difficult to address or compare that way! The film makers should understand this very seriously and give us space to help them look better on screen. You cant keep crushing the VFX industry all the time when you can spend oodles of money on actors!
What are the skills sets that young artists/film makers/animators must possess to make a mark in this competitive environment?
First and foremost… They should love the creative part of what they are doing! Once they fall in love, the passion and determination comes, then comes the skills. Stick to what you are doing and master it before you get on to other departments. For example if an artist begins his career as Roto Artist, then stick to it and become the best roto artist before you move on to see what Paint does and then tracking and then compositing etc. Same with Animation too, specialisation is important and not being a generalist. Stick to what you want to do and be a Master in that!
I would say film makers should understand how visual effects or animation can help them to tell stories better. I am not saying they should learn any of the courses, but understand how it can help in the overall production. It’s like driving the car and you don’t have to know the mechanism involved inside the engine but understand overall what the clutch and gear do in terms of helping you move forward!