The rise and rise of uber-cool digital studios
Digital studios are booming on a stretch called Link Road in Andheri, which is also the hub of movie corporations, a row of rasta food stalls, and is dominated by Fun Republic, which has survived the business slump faced by the city’s malls and multiplexes.
And so, when I sought out a one-stop-halt — editing, colouring and sound mixing for a documentary — it was amazing to discover more than a dozen such D-studios, buzzing like bee hives. On the second floor of Jai Krishna building, for instance, two digital establishments
function bang opposite each other. While one insists that all visitors remove their footwear outside, the other is more liberal, although its security is tighter than that at the Mumbai airport terminals.
Once inside, the age group at work at the state-of-the-art machines is largely between 25 and 30, garbed in jeans and T-shirts. Discernibly, the jhola-kurtas of yore are no longer the preferred option for the cool, coming-up generation of film technicians. Come to think of it, even at the Prithvi theatre in Juhu, the nerve centre for dreamers, khadi kurtas have become rarer than mangoes in winter.
Back at the digital studios, the cabins are the size of elevators at most. No snacks or meals are permitted in the sanctum sanctorums, which means there is a pocket-sized dining room, in which the young technicians wolf down their meals looking quite like industrious Hobbits.
‘Home delivery’ restaurants thrive, the hot-sellers being idlis, dosai, fruit plates (topped with juice-spurting black grapes), and inevitably pizzas and burgers from fast food joints that throng the vicinity. “Pizzas are too cheesy, burgers too unhealthy…which is why many of us are either too thin or too fat,” explained a 20-something technician, reluctantly dipping one more French fry into a dot of tamarind sauce.
Most of the technicians, employed by film and TV software companies, work for such long hours that they look haunted, framed by dark circles around their eyes. Yet, the grind appears to be worth the trouble simply because it’s a hands-on learning experience, far more valuable than spending years (and money) at the academies. And surprisingly, despite the work stress, by large, the mood is upbeat. At Image Devices, I met the affable Amit Jalan, who roared with laughter at my silly wisecracks. And at FX Studio, I encountered a group of girl students who should surely contest the beauty pageants.
Wow. The digital revolution is on for sure. I heard of at least a couple of dozen independent films in the pipeline. And at one studio, a technician disclosed that as many as five feature films featuring the stand-up comic, Vir Das, are ready to go. Jalan remarked that both art and commercial films go through key stages of post-production at his studio. To which, I couldn’t resist saying, “But what’s the difference?” — to be rewarded with a lion-roar of approval.
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