In the last month, Indian VFX studio philmCGI has seen three projects it has worked on, come to life. Among these are the Netflix-original film Murder Mubarak, Prime Video series Inspector Rishi, and Netflix-original film Chamkila.
PhilmCGI delivered visual effects for the thriller flick Murder Mubarak which stars Sara Ali Khan, Pankaj Tripathi, Dimple Kapadia, Karishma Kapoor, Vijay Varma and Tisca Chopra.
Crime drama series Inspector Rishi is the studio’s first major work with the film industry of South. The studio worked hard to create the perfect CGI characters, creatures, FX simulations and Unreal set extensions for this series. The team also used innovative methods and technology while working on the series.
“Inspector Rishi marked a significant milestone in our recent VFX endeavours, encompassing a vast scope of conceptualisation to final execution,” said philmCGI VFX studio head Sanjay Rajan. “Our team breathed life into photorealistic animals, including elephants, deer, tigers, insects etc. seamlessly integrating them with live characters for added complexity. We also tackled CG set extensions utilising Unreal engine and meticulously crafted FX simulations for insects, fire and other elements. The diverse range of tasks undertaken throughout the project made every step exhilarating and challenging, pushing the boundaries of our craft.”
The team has worked on the 2D animated segment in Imtiaz Ali’s latest movie Chamkila, which stars Diljit Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra. “This comic-style animation and test super over images helped in blending live image with animation creating a unique way of storytelling. This method has never been done before in Indian cinema with such magnitude and has been praised and well-received by both the industry and the viewers,” the studio told AnimationXpress.
“We pitched a wide array of art styles to Imtiaz for Chamkila, he liked them all. It is a great opportunity for our studio to showcase three different forms of art and animation in one film (roto/traditional animation/graphic novel). This film was a creative dream come true where we pushed boundaries and that can be viewed on screen. From text supers to the animation and split screens this film will always be known as a breakthrough of multimedia and animation in Indian cinema” said philmCGI creative director Kanchi Kanani.
“Our team does a lot of research and development before any project to get into the real essence of the storyline which helps us work on various kinds of methods depending on what the project requires and that is then converted with ease for the viewers to view on screen,” said philmCGI co-founder and managing director Arpan Gaglani.
“The technical pipeline we have created which is our proprietary pipeline helps us get the best output in required deadlines. Working on large-scale animation and VFX projects needs a lot of creative and technical support. Our teams work closely on this together with the production house teams to get the best output,” said philmCGI managing director Anand Bhanushali.
PhilmCGI has risen as one of the most prolific post-production studios over the last few years with a range of OTT premium originals to their credit. The studio has carved its niche by working on and successfully delivering VFX for many prominent series like Jubilee, Sacred Games S2, Kaala Paani and movies like Qala and The Archies to name a few. The studio also won the Best VFX award at the prestigious Filmfare OTT Awards 2023, for their remarkable work in the Amazon Original series Jubilee.
