The Hindu Business Line : Prime Focus lends high-end visual effects to Hollywood flick

Chennai June 4 Hollywood film 28 Weeks Later is yet to be released in India. Nevertheless, its release abroad is more special for this Indian company. The Mumbai-based Prime Focus, a post-production and visual effects services provider, has done the entire post-production work for this film.

The film was completed by sharing work between its studios in Mumbai and London (Prime Focus acquired 55 per cent stake in the London-based post-production company VTR Group last year). What is significant in this operation is that the Indian studio worked on creating about 50 per cent of high-end visual effects in the film.

Generally, only low- to mid-end visual effects development is outsourced to India. But Prime Focus' London studio has changed this by getting high-end work into its Indian operations.

"The London studio is helping us bag the quality of projects we could have otherwise not bagged being an Indian company," said Mr Amit Gupta, Director - Corporate Development, Prime Focus. The company has bagged six other projects — to be jointly handled by Mumbai and London.

28 Weeks Later received fairly favourable reviews overseas and raked in over $30 million in ticket sales, 12 days since its release on May 11. This has helped Prime Focus strengthen its brand image in the US market, where it is now looking to establish local presence. The company is looking at multiple options, including acquisition, to set up its operations in the US. Once this happens, more high-end work could be outsourced into Prime Focus in India, Mr Gupta said.

The company is also planning to set up a facility in Dubai. "We are in talks with authorities and watching the development of Dubai Media City," he said. When asked what work the proposed facility would do, Mr Gupta said "similar to India" but "it is too speculative to talk about in terms of work sharing between our different locations."

Bollywood films

On the domestic front, the company is planning to get into feature film production. It has produced two Hindi films so far — Gaayab and Life Ho Toh Aisi — both high on visual effects. "We would want to continue producing films with high visual effects content," Mr Gupta said. When asked if this would be extended to overseas production, he said the company was keeping its options open. "Depending on distribution of overseas films in Indian markets, we will decide," he added.