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Buoyed by the National Film Award for Best Visual Effects for the Telugu film Eega (The Fly), the Hyderabad-based Makuta VFX is planning to double the number of employees to 120 this year from the present 60.
Besides providing special effects to the film industry, the start-up firm is planning to create intellectual property rights by building IT tools.
“We are planning to come out with basic building blocks. Using these blocks, life would be easier for those who come to us for special effects works,” Dasaradh Gude, Chairman of Makuta Inc., said.
He said it would be like keeping the windows, doors and walls ready for real-estate industry. “For certain things, you need not work from the scratch,” he said.
“We are also working on an information technology solution that would help both the film director and the VFX firms to keep an eye on the work flow. It will help them in keeping a strict control on the work plan,” Raja Koduri, who has just been appointed as Chief Technical Advisor to Makuta's board of directors.
Raja served as Director of Graphics Architecture at Apple Inc and as Chief Technology Office (CTO) for Graphics at AMD Inc prior to that.
Talking to Business Line over phone from California after their company winning the National Award, Dasaradh and Raja Koduri have shared the future plans of the company.
“We grew from a handful of people to 25 and to the present 60 in three years. We are planning to expand to outside of Hyderabad. The promoters, who had invested “a couple of crores” in the company, had no plans to invite private equity funds at this stage.
“But we might consider such funding if it comes through strategic alliances,” Dasaradh said.
Makuta addresses requirements such as on-set visual effects supervision, digital matte painting, high-end feature animation and effects work, motion tracking and final compositing.
On the special effects industry, Dasaradh said the biggest challenge was the regular pipeline of projects. “The gap between one project to another is a challenge. Several companies are not able to face this challenge,” he said.
kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in
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