2022 has been a buzzing year for the Indian VFX industry with VFX-heavy films released like Brahmastra, RRR, Radhe Shyam, Bhediya and PS-I. At the same time, the Indian studios provided services to a fair share of Hollywood films in 2022 like Black Adam, Bullet Train, Uncharted, Moon Knight, Thor: Love and Thunder and many more.
To look back at the studios’ performance in 2022 and know about their exciting plans for 2023, Animation Xpress got in touch with several VFX studios, and here’s what they have to say:
Knack Studios
With a current staff of 200, the company has two facilities one in Chennai and the other state-of-the-art facility is spread across 6,000 sq. ft. area in Hyderabad which is currently under renovation and will be fully functional sometime in January 2023. The Hyderabad facility will host 65 VFX artists and two colour grading suites equipped with Baselight and Barco projectors and Da Vinci Resolve along with HDR Monitors which will be capable of delivering Dolby Vision content.
Knack studios has fared well in 2022. They worked on around 87 films in 2022 and still have many in the pipeline in various stages of production. The studio’s revenues are much better than pre-Covid numbers and according to them, that’s a clear sign of the number of quality content being produced for both the theatrical and OTT releases. The studio has worked on projects delivered to every platform such as Netflix, Prime, Hotstar, Zee5, Sony LIV and Aha!.
“Today, achieving quality is not a problem and with access to highly talented artists and technicians in our country, I feel the approach to VFX by filmmakers and producers has shifted mainly due to expanding markets which enable producers to spend more to achieve the ‘Creator’s Creator’ vision on screen,” added Knack Studios co-founder and president Harish Ram about the filmmakers’ approach towards VFX in films.
Speaking about the studio’s 2023 plan, Ram said, “We have significant expansion plans from January 2023. We are launching our international VFX divisions in Chennai and Hyderabad with new office plans in Mumbai and Vancouver and look to grow to a 500+ artist strength in the next three years.” The studio is currently working on national projects such as Ponniyin Selvan 2, Indian 2 and Ram Charan’s Shankar 15 along with some international projects.
CineVisualFX
Currently with a strength of 50 employees, the VFX studio is growing day by day with an aim to double the strength in 2023. In 2022, the studio worked on several international projects and delivered commercials for their international clients and brands like BMW, Huawei, Mercedes and Budweiser which starred Marshmallow. Expanding their work base to domestic projects, CineVisualFX bagged the opportunity to work with Excel Entertainment. Also, recently the studio won the 24FPS award for the Best TVC VFX category for Huawei Car – TVC commercial.
CineVisualFX executive producer Ruchira Sharma said, “2022 has seen a tremendous boost to the VFX industry and that shows promising financial growth. It would be safe to say that VFX is becoming an integral part of every project, be it small or big.”
The studio is currently working on a Hollywood feature film and CineVisualFX is grateful to collaborate with an Emmy Award-winning supervisor and Oscar award-winning editor for the same.
Sharma added, “I can say that it has been a very beautiful journey and in this year, we would be grateful to work on more exciting projects and continue this journey.”
Hoop VFX
2022 has been a good year for Hoop VFX as it worked on several interesting shows from traditional TV and OTT. The studio worked on over 20 films, a dozen of commercials and arch-viz projects for Netflix, Apple and Amazon. Hoop worked on Cyrrano, The Last Kingdom, Amsterdam, Iblis Promise, Bhediya, Secret Headquarters among others. One of the biggest projects for Hoop VFX in 2022 was Wakanda Forever.
With a team of 75 people, the studio recently started a training program which gives on-the-job training to college graduates and provides them with an avenue into the VFX industry.
Talking about the importance of VFX in Indian films, Hoop VFX managing director Priyanka Balasubramanian shared, “VFX has over the years gained a lot of importance in films as it allows directors to create story lines that would otherwise be impossible. While the Western world has always leaned heavily on VFX to orchestrate out of the world story lines, the Indian market has been playing catch up but has been surprising everyone with the pace. From our conversation, we understand that more filmmakers, especially those in India are opening up to the idea of delivering the vision with visual effects. Hits like Baahubali, RRR and PS-1 are success stories that give us a lot of encouragement and are strong indicators of a shift towards VFX-associated filmmaking.”
Speaking about the plans for 2023, she said, “Our plan is to scale up in the manner to do more end-to-end creative work. We are also looking to make investments on the technology front to help us achieve these goals. We are hoping the trend of 2022 continues into 2023 and are quite excited about some conversations we are having about shows that we will be involved in.”
HaloHues Studios
Commenting on the progress of this year and sharing plans for 2023, HaloHues Studios CEO UdaiKrishna Pandamaneti said, “We have been doing exceptionally well and are flooded with multiple projects, especially post the trailer release of our latest project, HanuMan which is a pan-world movie. We have been working on some Bollywood and pan-Indian movies along with some International projects.” HanuMan is a small-budget project in which the studio has matched the international quality of VFX with the use of smart technologies and a good creative team based out of Hyderabad.
Talking about the budgets and filmmakers’ approach Pandamaneti said, “Since most filmmakers plan VFX post-production, it is a herculean task to work around trickled-down – limited budgets. Producers are getting stuck due to limited budgets which will in turn affect the quality of the output. Filmmakers/ Producers still need to be more informed and educated about the nuts and bolts of VFX and Animation BTS.”
As of now the studio has a team of 100 plus employees and is now completely into providing post-production services but in the future, they are looking to expand their base in pre-production and a cutting-edge virtual production facility.
Illusion Reality Studioz
2022 has been a good year for the studio as it worked on its four internal projects of Contiloe Pictures some of which are Dharmaveer Garud – SAB TV, Yashomati Ke Nandlal – Sony TV and Swaraj, which celebrated 75 years of Indian independence for Doordarshan. In terms of international projects, the studio worked on Blood Psalms, and A.J. Fikry among others and in Bollywood they worked on the movie Prithviraj Chauhan.
With a staff of 125 people in Mumbai and Bhubaneswar collectively, they are constantly building their team. In 2022, they turned their Bhubaneswar outlet into a 6,000 sq.ft. facility with teams focused on Unreal and virtual production.
Talking about the VFX budget, Illusion Reality Studioz business head and group CFO Nitin Dadoo said, “I don’t see an increase in the budget, but I see an increase in the volume of work. In the case of complex work, I see the possibility of increased budgets but in the regular VFX work the budget is stagnant.”
Currently, Illusion Reality Studioz is working on the web series Taj which will premiere on Zee5. “Our plans are exciting for 2023, we are aiming to be a major player in Bollywood and Hollywood, and we want to keep the momentum going of working on international projects. Our focus area would also be virtual production and getting into metaverse and also to be in the Top Five VFX studios of India,” said Dadoo while sharing the studio’s future plans.
Dadoo also believes that India is going to be a VFX hub in the future as Indian VFX is being discussed internationally. Also, in his opinion, as international studios are setting up their shops in tier one and tier two cities of India, great career opportunities for artists will be created.
In conclusion, 2022 has been great for Indian studios and the industry has seen filmmakers’ keen interest in creating VFX-heavy films and series, which is a tremendous indicator of the industry’s growth in the near future.