The 21st annual Screen Awards is all set to take place on 14 January. This year’s awards have five movies that made the cut from 2014 in the visual effects category. PK, Singham Returns, Kick, Bang Bang and Bhoothnath Returns are in the race for bagging the title trophy.
Prana Studios’ P Mohanan and Ashwin Agarwal have been nominated for Bhoothnath Returns, Prime Focus chief creative director Merzin Tavaria has two movies to his name- Kick and Bang Bang, Riva Digital creative director Viral Thakkar has a nomination for 2014’s biggest blockbuster PK while Reliance Mediaworks’ creative head Naveen Paul is the name behind Singham Returns.
Viral is very elated to have been nominated, the first with his name and new company. “It feels good to be a part of the Rs 300 crore movie club. We hope we win and the jury can see the amount of VFX work on the movie, a lot of which is also invisible to the common eye,” he says while speaking to AnimationXpress.com. According to him, Haider should have also got a nomination in the VFX category.
“It’s been a good year for us. It always feels good to be appreciated for the work and to push the industry more. We had a big change at Prime Focus too last year,” says Merzin talking about the nominations and the merger of Prime Focus with Reliance Mediaworks.
Adding to what Merzin had to say, Reupal Rawal (VFX Supervisor on ‘Kick’) adds: “We are really pleased that visual effects is finally finding its place in the film industry and as it’s getting appreciated, it only motivates to contribute further to the industry with the help of creativity and technology to bring the director’s vision on a bigger canvas.” According to her Roar should have made the cut as well, given the kind of work that went into creating the film.
Naveen who has also been nominated for the first time feels encouraged that the jury could see the VFX work done in the movie.
As the amount of movies requiring VFX grows, the industry needs to take a step ahead in catering to the community. “We definitely need somebody to design the growth plan of this industry for all the technicians. We need to educate people about VFX especially for the audiences, so that they are aware about this industry as well, specially the making of the movie,” says Naveen.
Viral is of the view that for any award event, the jury needs to probably think of calling for the making of the movie and then decide the winner rather than place it on what is visible over the top.
The awards will be screened on Life OK later on in the month.
