VFX of 'Kahani Hamaray Mahabharat Ki'

Mumbai-based Color Cubes which recently won the Global India TV Honor award for its cutting edge VFX works in Aahat Season 3, is now doing the VFX for Balaji Productions' Kahani Hamaray Mahabharat Ki, being aired on 9X. Some of the decisive scenes done by Color Cubes include the baby Krishna and Sheshnag scene, creation of a 3D wolf character, the goddess Ganga and water splash scene, all of which have already gone on air. For creation of all these key shots, the VFX Company has done an extensive work on character modeling, water simulation, particle simulation, caustics, amongst other CG and VFX techniques. Said Suraj Rao, Creative Head of Kahani Hamaray Mahabharat Ki, "We are getting a good response from the audiences all around. Now the TV format is changing, and lot of VFX is involved in the serials going on air these days. We have tried to use high-quality VFX for the scenes in the serial and have achieved to reach quality level of CG work for the small screen. The VFX work done by Color Cubes is really appreciable." Explaining the baby Krishna and Seshnag scene, Himanshu said, "For this particular shot we had to put lot of effort creating the CG naag (snake) and rain and to composite it with live artist and water, along with the creation of water simulation." "We also had to work on the rain and water interaction with the artist because we made CG rain and water splashes. The CG water splashes have been added digitally using particle effect which needed an extensive research to give the desired look that the director asked for." For the goddess Ganga and water splash scene, Color Cubes composited CG water with real water and created CG water splash, waves and tornado which later converts in the form of goddess Ganga. Explaining one of the critical shots from the series, Himanshu explained, "One of the most complicated shots was creating a CG environment and a CG 3D wolf. Earlier we tried shooting a dog and transforming him into a wolf, but we couldn't do it because of the dogs' walking style and his tongue, which is always out of the dogs' mouth. Later we created a CG wolf and environment which we composited with the artist, shot in the chroma background." Few of the other sequences which took a lot of effort included camera motion shots, matte cutting, character modeling, complex compositing shots and rope removal, to name a few.

Om Shanti Om VFX in Dhoom Tana

Mumbai based 'Redchillies.vfx' has won Bollywood's popular Screen Awards for Best Visual Effects for the Shah Rukh Khan starrer mega blockbuster 'Om Shanti Om'. The other movies nominated in the same category were Chak De! India & Taare Zameen Par.
Delighted on winning the award, Redchillies.vfx COO Keitan Yadav shared with AnimationXpress.com, "Definitely we are excited and happy after winning this award. We are being nominated for the award from last three years but have won it for the first time. Also it was an honour to be nominated for two films (also Chakde India) in the same category. Explaining the VFX shots, he said, "The movie had a retro song - 'Dhoom tana' which consisted of high-end VFX work and also, there were a lot of complex sequences which made the work varied and unique," he added.

Stage 1

The team had to locate the original footage of the films they had short listed. The three song sequences appeared in Amrapali (1966, Sunil Dutt and Vyjayantimala), Saccha Jhutha (1970, Rajesh Khanna and Mumtaz) and Jay-Vijay (1977, Jeetendra and Jayashree T). Not always in the best condition, the original footage had to be scanned, carefully restored and cleaned up to the best possible quality on the computers.
Stage 2

Keeping in mind, the set of the films, the camera angles and the lighting, Deepika Padukone was shot in present dressed in similar costumes as the yesteryear actresses to further enhance that ‘70’s look. She pretended to dance with the actors by romancing an imaginary hero.
Stage 3

The original actresses, i.e. Vyjanthimala, Mumtaz and Jayashree T. were removed from the sequences. All this of course, was done with the help of the Red Chillies’ VFX (visual effects) team. Sequences where the camera was moving and the actors were in contact were specially chosen, so as to provide opportunity for Deepika to dance along with them as opposed to posing. Things to note were the eye contact between the actors, physical touch, lighting continuity, perspective matching, skin tones matching, color matching, etc.
Stage 4

Deepika’s footage was pasted in place of the actual actresses’ footage. The technical term for this is ‘compositing’. Thus, it seems that she has been locked in the same frame as legends, Sunil Dutt, Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra. The song truly was a treat to watch. And now some of our wonder and amazement has been satisfied. Keitan Yadav, COO of Red Chillies VFX asserted that the idea was to give a feel of the era and is glad that they seemed to have succeeded.
He adds that “there are about 200 additional shots in the film where VFX is used like the snow-flakes in the globe, SRK and Deepika turning real and dancing in the globe, the Mother India fire sequence, Shantipriya’s death sequence and the climax sequence.”
Image Courtesy: ‘The Making of Om Shanti Om’ published by Om Books International