CAN WE say Harry Potter series today, Ra.One tomorrow? Not yet, we suppose. Well then, picture this. Krrish 3 sequel is almost knocking at the door. Mind it. And billed to be Bollywood’s costliest sci-fi flick, Ra.One, a brain-boggling superhero biggie from King Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment production stable makes a vehement promise to change the entire movie-going experience for the cinegoers at home, this Diwali.
By now, it’s popular knowledge that this Anubhav Sinha directorial vehicle — Ra.One — features famous stars Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal in the lead cast besides SRK as the nemesis of evil alias G.One. The film has remarkably roped in internationally acclaimed VFX supervisor-cum-CEO and co-founder of a US-based Synthesian Studios — Jeff Kleiser — on board to do the best job in business.
Touted as a path-breaking superhuman movie, Ra.One vies to stand out as an eye-popping slick VFX (visual effects) venture, hitherto churned out by any Indian production house.
But what is a special effects (SFX) medium after all? For a layman’s understanding, this new-age concept can be defined as the illusions conventionally used in films, television, theatre or entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story. With a bunch of American MNCs (multi-national companies) namely Sony Imageworks, Rhythm and Hues, Dreamworks and Disney setting up their own establishments on Indian shores and foraying the domestic market to inundate with their state-of-the-art infrastructural facilities, things are looking up to swing in Indian animation industry’s favour which is currently climbing on a flourishing graph.
An array of pioneering projects in computer animation, graphic designing and SFX sphere is being thoroughly executed at international levels with a quality of universally-approved world cinema standards. “This is no figment of somebody’s personal imagination. But an absolute reality that holds true for our national animation industry. India shares a plum pie quoting an impressive value of worth half-a-billion dollars of the entire global chart, as per the latest data revelation. In two years down the line i.e., by 2013, the animation/VFX industry aims to treble this figure to roundabout $1.5 billion. Fact is, there has been a soaring surge of demand for outsourcing work in India from the western world. Hence, a huge heap of immense manpower is to be created. Presently, a bulk of 30,000 animators has been absorbed all over the home turf. Yet there is still a requirement of three lakh skilled hands and heads to fill in the gaping asking rate. And that’s quite a giant leap to begin with,” ratifies Biswajit Das, vice president, operations, Frameboxx, citing relevant reasons.
“The US and other nations in West look at India as a happening destination indeed. They eye the market as a booming hub. Basically, India has an edge over the neighbouring nations vis-à-vis China, on the linguistic grounds. The dealers and distributors in animation industry largely target the English-speaking gentry classes of urban India to sell their high-end products to. And on this score, India stays advantageously ahead. Here at this juncture, cynics may also sniff of a probability of brain-draining risk. But nothing of this sort can mar the show for reasons economical.
Eliciting brisk business from abroad only means to pool in lump sum resources which are unarguably necessary to reap revenues and boost the country’s commerce in the entertainment sector. So, it’s a win-win situation for both phoren and desi partners,” he chips in further to elaborate his point.
In a land where grandmothers are traditionally fabled for cooking up bedtime stories from their never-ending kitties, can the flight of imagination run out of its fuel? “No way, we guess. Our grannies’ bags are always loaded with one captivating tale after another. So, you may well gauge the level of creative content that is being deeply ingrained into our system. This is the root of original India, where aeons-old civilisation thrived on real stories steeped with stains of mythological sagas to mingle humans with the divine. By birth, Indians are such good storytellers. You see, we have a treasure-trove of aesthetic capital sown in our backyard. Just a little finesse of a faultless technology is the need of the hour to grow and nourish expert animators within the national territories for tomorrow,” shares eminent, experienced animator, Bhimsain Khurana, who also doubles up as the veteran president of reputed Mumbai-based 2nz Academy of Animation. Incidentally, this septuagenarian’s last December release Toonpur Ka Superhero, starring Kajol and Ajay Devgn, saw the Indian celluloid spin a spectacular movie with live actions combined with animated characters.
Animation has lodged its cogent usage in not only the audio-visual context of movies, TV serials and ad commercials but also in streams of defence research, medical science and educational sectors.
“There are learner-friendly CDs available in ample in academics, wherein fresher pupils can see, hear and learn with a guaranteed session of enjoyment amidst an unlimited fun,” shares Das. Interestingly, when information technology converges with the ambit of entertainment, then the resultant fusion becomes infotainment.
Starting from a normal trainee to an ace animation whizkid, the pay-packets only ascend up the hierarchical order.
Noticeably, the arena has an unstoppable growth to hurtle towards a bigger, brighter future. Corporate databases evince that there has been quite an impressive number of placements at top-notch organisations like the Prime Focus, Rhythm and Hues, Crest, Dreamworks, Technicolor, et al. Good news is that these are major corporate players in the game of e-business.
It’s true that the courses are a burdening pocket-pinch to fit into lower-income budgets but there have been cases where companies have patronised and sponsored a budding talent from the sub-altern fringes. “Creativity is not a niche passion any more. It is steadily gaining a ground of acceptance as a much-lucrative profession in the job-circuits. Plus as a much-hyped curriculum in school/college precincts too, it has a snowballing impact. So, it’s no longer a hobby like before,” insists a trainee at MAAC (Maya Academy Of Advanced Cinematics), a leading institution in high-end 3D animation and VFX education.
“This is no child’s play but a serious profession to bank on. You see, the way the backstage people in theatre or behind-the-scene technicians in movies enhance production quality either on stage or on silver screen, similarly, the back-end animators prop up an actor’s look and stunts with an immaculate, flawless mastery of artistic and technological precision. They make what screen-idols appear to us on the virtual membrane across a 70 mm canvas,” analyses globally-renowned animator and laserist Manick Sorcar.