For many years, Indian VFX units catered mainly to Hollywood and ad-film makers in India, with feature film directors – barring a few exceptions – keeping their distance. Suddenly, attitudes have changed and it’s certainly encouraging.
One of the few VFX studios, which has attempted to do its bit in pushing the envelope in delivering some really groundbreaking work consistently in the past few years, is FutureWorks (FWX).
AnimationXpress.com’s Sidharth Iyer caught up with the FutureWorks Team on its recent collaboration with A.R. Murugadoss’s second Bollywood directorial ‘Holiday’ and also took a closer look at how did the studio manage this project in greater detail.
“The visual effects industry in India roughly picked up around 1997 and since then it has grown from strength to strength; earlier VFX was an underutilised tool, as in just a few song sequences or commercials were done using VFX but things have really changed in the last decade. Nowadays VFX has become a very integral part of the storytelling process and that’s something heartening to see for the industry,” expounds FutureWorks VFX director Krishnakanth Mishra, on how the VFX industry has done in the recent past.
FutureWorks has four facilities across Mumbai and Chennai providing end-to-end services including visual effects, color and sound services. The studio boasts a 140 visual effects artists’ strong team working together on projects between the two cities.
‘Holiday’ing with A.R. Murugadoss
“Actually our association with A.R. Murugadoss goes back to Thuppakki (2012), as you know that ‘Holiday’ is a refreshed version of that film, thus Murugadoss was comfortable working with us again on this project,” Mishra adds.
FWX delivered upwards of 750 shots for ‘Holiday’ with artists from both the Chennai and Mumbai facility working on the project.
Blending artistry with technology on ‘Holiday’
Speaking exclusively to AnimationXpress.com, the VFX supervisor on ‘Holiday’ Vinay Singh Chuphal says: “Working on the film was a real pleasure as we had earlier collaborated on the Tamil film ‘Thuppakki’ with Murugadoss and working on ‘Holiday’ was a natural progression for him.”
The major VFX sequences that needed the studio’s expertise were the bus, mall and ship blast sequences. “We worked for nearly one and a half months on the project and ensured that everything was according to the director’s vision. The bus blast sequence took some time because we used live footage as well as a lot of CGI to change the backdrop and make it fit the storyline of the film,” he adds.
The other sequences, that required some work was the mall blast sequence and the climax of the film where there are loads of blasts on a ship. A lot of time was spent in researching to get the blasts right; “We shot a real ship from all sides and then recreated it using CGI and ensured that it looked and seemed as realistic as the real one, once you watch the film you will get to see what I mean,” Chuphal explains.
“There were no major hurdles in the execution of the VFX shots, and ‘Holiday’ is a product that FutureWorks is really proud to be associated with,” he ends.
Director’s Cut
Post its release on 6 June with a near 3,500 screen nationwide release the Akshay Kumar starrer has gone onto win the hearts of the critics and audiences alike, and already netted nearly over Rs 60 crore in net collections.
“I am really happy with the work of FutureWorks for my movie Holiday, the way they work is systematic and the way they’ve put their hard work to meet the director’s vision is really fantastic and no matter how many times I have asked for things to be reworked, they are always ready for the betterment of the product. The major VFX works of my film such as the bus blast, mall blast & ship blast have been appreciated by all,” A.R. Murugadoss, director of Holiday exults.
“The ship blast is really fantastic. I’ve received a lot of appreciation calls regarding the blasts VFX and the title animation too. Thanks to the entire FWX team for their commitment and hard work, especially the supervisors, Vinay and Shashi, who are really good at their work,” he ends.
Sharing his views on the collaboration between FWX and A.R. Murugadoss, FWX MD
Gaurav Gupta says: “Holiday was a big platform to showcase our creative abilities. I was concentrating on the technology front, keeping up with the software and hardware, so that the boys in the studio could have their creative juices flowing to come up with stunning shots. I am proud of the whole team.”
“All this would not have been possible without the opportunity provided by the producer Vipul Shah and the director A.R. Murugadoss. And I appreciate their trust and faith in my team and me from the bottom of my heart and sincerely congratulate both of them for the success of the film,” Gupta ends.
