Very ambitiously titled, ‘Can India Create the Next Avatar?‘ this session at NASSCOM 2010 dedicated purely to VFX discussed whether India was ready for being a game changer in the Visual Effects space and was ready to come up with its own VFX driven movies that could trigger the market for exponential growth and at the same time bring paradigm shifts in the way film makers utilized VFX for telling their stories.
Panelists in the session included R&H India Director of Operations Saraswathi Balgam, VCL COO Nagarajan S, MPC India country head Akhauri P Sinha and Makuta VFX Founder R.C Kamalakannan.
While Nagarajan of VCL came prepared with a presentation that analyzed factors that can lead India to make its own VFX driven movie like Avatar, the rest of the speakers in the panel shared perspectives on different aspects of the VFX space in India
Nagarajan shared that Hollywood was an increasing area of focus for VCL and that the studio was also proud to have executed two Indian features on the animation side including Roadside Romeo and Arjun.
Talking about whether India can create the next Avatar, he gave a comparison between Avatar and Robot which is India‘s biggest VFX film so far.
Avatar Robot
Budget 300-400 Million USD 20-30 Million USD
VFX, CGI, Post Prod 70% of Budget 40% of budget
Time >5 years 2-3 years
Special Equipment Customized 3D Camera Animatronics
Prints 22,000 2,000
Collection USD 2.7 Billion USD 70 Million
Territories 80 Countries 10 Countries
Nagarajan pointed out that, “I think the main thing we require that can lead to the next Avatar being created in India is Creative Leadership.”
He also added, “In terms of production, we already have the capability. There is substantial work and growth curve to be traversed in terms of pre production though. When it comes to Post Production, the capabilities are there but we need to be more confident of ourselves that we can do that level of work. Distribution of course will happen in a collaborative way.”
“In short there are very good and positive indications of India being able to produce if not the next Avatar, but the one after the next” concluded Nagarajan on the topic of high end VFX films.
Akhauri P Sinha, Country Head, MPC India began, “I have a slightly different take on this topic, will Avatar be produced locally? I don‘t know if this forum is for that. If the question is will India do VFX for an Avatar like movie…the answer is of course yes, -wake up and smell the coffee”
He then shared with the audience the MPC showreel of high quality international work. Talking then about the Indian VFX space, Akhauri shared that VFX was a largely unbranded industry. “If you try to remember the top 5 films you saw in the last year, you will be able to tell the name of the director and the actors, perhaps even the Producer, but you will not be able to remember who did the VFX. We are largely an unbranded industry.” He then went on to say that as VFX gets more sophisticated, the harder it gets to identify in a film, thus creating a situation where even as films use more and better VFX, it is still invisible.
“We are sitting here in a VFX Panel under the conference called Animation & Gaming conclave” he added, making a call for the VFX segment to get more acknowledgement and recognition from its very own sibling segments. This recognition, he stressed, would help in creating an ecosystem within which VFX could thrive. The ecosystem right now was very fragile, especially the training and infrastructure components. Towards this end, Sinha also called for more solidarity and knowledge sharing between VFX studios in India. Putting all this into place might result in India soon being able to do an Avatar.
Rhythm & Hues India’s Saraswathi Balgam began by showcasing the amazing R&H showreel that never ceases to amaze and stun the audiences. “At R&H we really want to focus on doing the highest quality work and at the same time provide for a great working environment for all of our employees. Our philosophy driven by the company’s president John Hughes is clearly committed to quality, honesty, nurturing and well being of our artists”
“If the question is can Indian artists produce VFX at the quality of Avatar ? I would argue that Indian artists working out of India are already contributing to many of the top Hollywood VFX feature films. Just within R&H India we have already successfully contributed to the VFX of over 50 major Hollywood feature films and the quality of the work is top notch and has seamlessly been integrated with the work produced at our various international facilities. However, these skillsets don’t automatically translate to being able to produce a movie of Avatar’s scale out of India. There are a lot more factors beyond VFX skillsets involved in making a major feature film like Avatar in India, and we still have quite a bit to learn and grow in those areas, so it is just a matter of time. The future is still bright and promising”
Next showing a very endearing trailer of Yogi Bear, she pointed out that for the first time R&H has recently become co-producers on this movie along with Warner Brothers. “We are also developing our own scripts and are looking for partners both in the International arena and in India” she communicated to the audience. We try to have a lot of fun in what we do. We are developing our own in house scripts In India since the last 2 .5 years and are looking for co-producers. We want to make our own Indian stories and movies.” she communicated to the audience.
Speaking towards the end of the session, RC Kamalakanan winner of the national award for Maghadeera and the founder of Makuta Effects gave his perspective based on his several decades of experience in VFX.
He pointed out that a great deal of social and cultural change would need to occur in the country before we could produce the next Avatar in India.
“Primarily we are a science and mathematics country, rather than creativity and the arts. When we see a flock of birds, we see the third bird has to come 32 inches inside to make a perfect V rather than appreciating the beauty of the flock flying in the sky” he said making his point.
“In the creative perspective we are more on the design area, on the whole we are more used to pattern rather then the creativity. And now to quote Einstien, creativity is better then knowledge and to achieve an Avatar like blockbuster we need the creativity”
He shared about how his quest for VFX and Post started in 1986 when he worked as news stringer for Doordarshan. Kamalakannan started and founded the renowned studio Indian Artists in 1989. “I realized then that I lacked in creativity and I got in 3 members from the National Institute of Design. It was not a job for them, it was their passion.”
“We had a good head start with the company, we had passionate people but it has taken 20 years for myself to give Magadheera and for Indian artists to give Robot… it is a long journey and the reason for why it has taken that long is the producer‘s mind set.” He pointed out. (Kamalakannan moved out of Indian Artists 5 years ago to form Makuta effects)
“Making a film for Indian producers means to deal within a star driven system. It is very difficult to produce it in. In Robot nearly 30 to 40% of the budget of the film was dedicated to CGI, VFX. In Magadheera around 10% of the budget of the film was dedicated to VFX. After winning a lot of critical acclaim and box office success, for my next film I tried that VFX should get more budget in the film, but the producer gave only 5% of the film‘s budget which was even lesser then Magadheera. The reason from the producer‘s side was that the next film was a new hero-director combination!!!” shared Kamalkannan giving an insight into the ways of our film industry.
“George Lucas has used his wealth to start ILM..but the wealth was created trading his directorial fee for licensing rights. But still ILM was not doing very well till he started working with Steven Spielberg on Indiana Jones. We need to work with directors who understand VFX and creativity” added Kamalakannan.
“The Premiere institute of our country for Design and Animation Film Making, NID produces only 20 animators per year and of that there are only 10 that come to our industry….now think of how many engineers we produce?” he led the audience thinking.
“Our society needs to be creative enough to acknowledge films like Avatar. When our society becomes creative we will produce Avatar. And when the producers see money in it they will invest.” Said Kamalakannan, bringing the session to an end with a very valid point.