VFX is no longer limited to just big budgeted films in India.It has graduated slowly and steadily towards the advertisement sector in India as well.It enables in creating innovative advertisements .VFX is today helping the brands to create ads on a grandeur scale to break the monotony among the clutter of ads in didgital space as well on TV.This has no doubt increased the visual appeal as well as retention power of the ad films. We take a look at some of the ads shot within few years in India which were VFX heavy.
Ching’s secret an Indian brand of Chinese cuisine ingredients made a TV commercial “Ranveer Ching returns” in 2016. The ad was claimed to be the most expensive ad film ever made with an advertising budget of INR 750 million, similar to that of a mid size hindi film. The ad was directed by renowned filmmaker Rohit Shetty and showed a dystopian future where the lead actor rides a chariot into an arena to combat hunger and save the people from starvation. Supported by YRF the 5 minute ad registered more than 6 million views on YouTube alone upon its release. NY VFXWAALA was responsible for creating the dystopian city.
According to Ashish Patil, vice-president, Yash Raj Films, the original script was written as a mythological thriller in “Bahubali” style by YRF, but turned out in its current avatar due to the unavailability of horses! That is when the cars and bikes flew in (literally). NY VFXWAALA, a division of Ajay Devgn Films, worked on creating the dystopian city. The film was shot at Ramoji Rao Film City, Hyderabad, in just four days.
VFX shots were used in creating the city, the giant vehicle on which Ranveer comes,the pan throwing scene where Ranveer and Tamannah throw the burning pan, fight sequences, hurling of vehicles etc. No doubt, the VFX shots helped in making the advertisement a huge sensation.
Ambuja cement—In 2015, Ambuja cement ran an ad campaign featuring The Great Khali, a popular wrestler. The TV commercial shows the difficulties faced by the wrestler due to size and strength while he tries to live a normal life in a house. Eventually, Ambuja cement helps the wrestler by providing him with a strong home. The ad used VFX extensively which was done by Metropolitana a VFX studio based in Spain. VFX shots have been taken where Khali falls down, breaks the wall shots. It was an innovative ad that became successful due to the VFX shots.
CocaCola—In 2017, Coca Cola introduced an Indian rendition of its global Brotherly Love Ad campaign in the form of a TV commercial. The concept of the film was laid by Mc Cann Worldgroup India, while Purple Vishnu Films did the production. Prime Focus did the online grading services for the ad film.
With success of VFX in such advertisements, no doubt there are possibilities of more such ads in future. There might be a bigger Ranveer Ching or a Bahubali based ad or who knows what visual magic we might get to see in future.