The field of visual and special effects is rapidly gaining ground in India. A company that is constantly innovating itself and working towards an 
enhanced cinema viewing experience is Reliance MediaWorks – the media and techno-creative solutions provider and a part of the Reliance Group.
Adding to its kitty of numerous awards and accolades won over the years is the recently achieved ‘Best Laboratory Award’ in the cinematography category for the film Mandrake! Mandrake!
Speaking to AnimationXpress.com about this win, RMW post production services president Krishna Shetty says: “Awards and recognition always feel good, because it is a validation of the commitment to the industry and hard work at Reliance MediaWorks. Among other things, a national award feels even more special since it is the highest honour instituted by the government of India and thus, yes winning this award for the lab makes me really happy. That we have been winning this award several times over the last few years, is again a reinforcement of the quality, commitment and different that we at Reliance MediaWorks make to the process of filmmaking through our consistent efforts.”
Produced by the National Film and TV Institute of India the diploma film is the story of a young man, who transforms a rundown warehouse into an Aladdin’s cave through the fun and frolic of the moving image, where magic, mystery and adventure become possible. Reliance MediaWorks is solely responsible for the VFX and processing of this film. This award marks the 16th national award for RMW lab.
“Yes it is the 16th award, and the third one in a row now. In the past as well, we have won this award for successive years, once for six years in a row. So yes, all these statistics sort of become a constant and periodic quality check for our service offerings. I 
as a businessperson am very satisfied about it,” Shetty exults.
Having recently attained the landmark achievement of completing 400 films successfully, the Reliance film lab has revolutionised the way films are processed in India and has worked with reputed production houses such as Dharma Productions, Yashraj Films, Balaji Motion Pictures and Red Chillies Entertainment, amongst others. Its consistent efforts have helped reduce the costs of films and increase the speed of overall production.
Commenting on the film Shetty expounds: ” Mandrake! Mandrake! was a student diploma film from FTII and we have handled the entire colour correction and processing and printing for the film. There wasn’t a VFX component to the film and we have worked on the complete processing of the film at our lab. It is for the entire duration of the film.”
“Mandrake! Mandrake! remains special, because it is a film made by the students of FTII, thereby we at Reliance MediaWorks are a part of the process of nurturing new talent. Even in the past, so many of our awards have been for films made by the FTII students, who have eventually gone ahead to be successful mainstream filmmakers and helped us win the awards yet again. So in that sense we have been part of the journey of several filmmakers from bright novices to seasoned stalwarts,” he adds.
The project duration wasn’t too long, and RMW finished the assignment in less than a month’s time. “The function of the creative processing of the lab is to append to the cinematographer’s vision and effectively employ our services to help translate the director’s vision on celluloid in the best possible manner, in terms of aesthetics, in an efficient and economic manner,” Shetty ends.
Offering cutting edge VFX solutions to Indian and international productions through its state of the art VFX studios in LA, London and Mumbai, the company has worked on legendary projects such as The Hobbit and renowned TV Series Black Sails in the past and is confident of continuing its contribution to the industry.
