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Vishwanath Kulkarni

Instead of special cast and exotic locales, film-makers are now going in for using technology for special effects.

LET'S see if you can answer this one: What's common to recently-released films such as Koi... Mil Gaya, BOYS, Chupke Se, BOOM, Devdas and Indra, among others?

If you haven't figured it out, here's the answer: all these films had some special visual effects and graphics — be it Jadoo, the alien in Koi... Mil Gaya, or the computer-generated girl character in the Girlfriend song of BOYS. The animated or rather computer-generated characters and the special effects to go with them were created by the Bangalore-based multimedia software makers Compudyne Winfosystems and Tata Elxsi.

With the use of special visual effects and multimedia content in Indian films going up, software vendors such as Tata Elxsi and Compudyne see good growth prospects and expect to benefit significantly from this emerging trend. The usage of computer-generated graphics to create outstanding special effects in films seems to be becoming the norm of the Indian film industry, these vendors say.

Indian filmmakers, even while trying to emulate their counterparts in Hollywood, are looking at providing something extra to viewers by including special effects in their films. "This trend of using special effects is catching up fast and we see it accelerating," says S.S. Dahiya, Chairman and Managing Director of Compudyne Winfosystems. Compudyne had provided the special effects for Koi... Mil Gaya and Devdas, and several other films.

Moreover, with film budgets shrinking slowly, directors are now forced to look at new avenues, such as the use of special visual effects in films to attract the audience, says K. Chandrashekar, General Manager and head, Visual Computing Labs, the multimedia division at Tata Elxsi. While film budgets are shrinking, spending on special visual effects is on the rise, Chandrashekar says. Also, using special effects brings down the cost of production.

Instead of special cast and exotic locales, filmmakers are now going in for using technology in terms of special effects. Moreover, the job of directors is being made easy by multimedia software vendors that also provide creative inputs at times, he says. "The younger generation of film directors seem to be more aware of the technology and are willing to use it extensively in their films," says Chandrakshekar. While in general, the increase in the use of special effects could be attributed to the impact or influence of Hollywood films, the fact that the Indian audience has taken a liking to visual effects in films cannot be ignored, he says.

Tata Elxsi, which sees good potential in the film industry, expects revenue of close to $5 million from its visual computing labs within a time-frame of 18-24 months.

The company has completed and delivered about seven to eight films over the last six months and has involved itself in the production of four more. Last year, it did more of animation-related work "and we are more involved in films this year," says Chandrashekar.

Tata Elxsi, which has close to 80 people as part of its Visual Computing Lab, expects to hire aggressively in the near term.

On the other hand, Compudyne Winfosystems, which took a hit post 9/11 due to order cancellations from big Hollywood filmmakers, is betting on the Indian film and entertainment industry to recover its losses.

The "prospects are good and we are in the process of expanding our infrastructure in Bangalore," says Dahiya.

While the use of computer graphics has picked up in the Indian film industry, segments such as cartoons and gaming are yet to gain momentum.

A Nasscom study estimates the market potential for global animation production at $50 billion by 2005, of which Indian vendors are expected to account for $1.5 billion.

vishwa@thehindu.co.in

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