The Hindi general entertainment channels (GEC) in India are having an overflow of mythological and historical shows gracing primetime. The latest to hit screens has a leading lady in it. Zee Network’s newly launched GEC &TV has one of history’s leading ladies in its show Razia Sultan.
A Sultan of Delhi province in the thirteenth century, her story is being told by Swastik Productions that has also worked on Star Plus’ popular show Mahabharat. The show not only has vast use of visual effects but also some CG animals delivered by Raj Studio.
Prior to launch, the studio was given about two months time to start preparing for the initial episodes. The first two episodes itself show a fight sequence between Razia and a tiger, which took nearly two and a half months to create. While the tiger isn’t a constant factor in the series, it got a good presence of nearly 10 minutes in the first two episodes.
“We didn’t have to take any reference from anywhere. There are a lot of videos on YouTube where you can watch the movements of a tiger and that’s where we took ideas from,” says Raj Studio owner and VFX supervisor Chirag Bhuva. This apart, there is a CG eagle in a few shots along with a battle sequence which has multiplication of 50 real camels to look like a herd of 500. This apart, the look and colour of the armour that the characters are wearing have been enhanced using VFX.
Out of the 13 episodes that have been delivered by now, scenes include a 3D walk through for the city and a desert sequence with a lone tree. Upcoming scenes include a white storm tornado and an arena sequence showing 5,000-10,000 people in the crowd. “For the Arena sequence we have created a 3D arena, 3D crowd, artificial lake, waterfall etc. Preparation has been on from 22 days only with just 25 per cent of it being a live set,” explains Chirag.
The production house informs the VFX house of the requirements for an upcoming episode about a fortnight in advance but the real shots come just two or three days before going on air. Out of five scenes, about three of them require set extensions to be added. “&TV is trying to push to create VFX for almost each scene to add grandeur,” says Chirag.
Outdoor scenes require about 40 per cent VFX shots, battle scenes need 65 per cent while indoor shots need just 10 per cent. While costs are fixed, Chirag says that if extra effort is needed to be put in, the channel is ready to extend its budget.
As the show progresses, there may be less time for executing VFX so there is a render farm that has been kept in the studio itself. Softwares used are Autodesk Maya, Adobe Photoshop and After Effects and Fusion. “Daily soaps have tough deadlines but we try to give our best shot at it,” he says.
Other projects that are being handled by Raj Studio are Jodha Akbar (Zee TV), Betaal aur Singhasan Battisi (SAB TV) and upcoming show Suryaputra Karna (Sony) which is still in the scripting stage.