Lending credence to reports that Kamal Haasan’s magnum opus ‘Vishwaroopam’ will hit screens on June 29, Madhu Sudhanan, the VFX supervisor of the film, says the bilingual is nearly complete. "Post-production work is currently on in studios in the US and India. We are almost there," says Madhu, known for his work in Hollywood movies like ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘Spiderman 3’ and ‘Gulliver's Travels’.
Madhu, who has been associated with the project since its launch in May last year, says his work involves conceiving every frame that requires special effects and transforming the text to visuals. “‘Vishwaroopam’ is not a fantasy like ‘Spiderman’, where special effects can be vividly shown,” he explains, adding that the highlight and the challenge of ‘Vishwaroopam’ has been maintaining a real feel and not going over the top with effects.
"The film’s gripping story requires effects that are in line with the theme. This has been my toughest film so far. Kamal always want to push the bar and strongly believes that special effects should not be visible. All I can say now is that you can't identify where special work has been done," he says.
Careful about what he divulges, Madhu says he can talk at length about the effects and techniques used in more than 1,400 shots in the movie, post its release. ‘Vishwaroopam’ is Madhu's fourth movie with Kamal Haasan, after ‘Thenali’, ‘Aalavandaan’ and ‘Unnaipol
Oruvan’. He even won the National award for his work in ‘Aalavandaan’. "I couldn't work in ‘Dasavatharam’though the movie had a lot of scope for VFX because I was working on ‘Spiderman’ then," says Madhu.
Ask him if ‘Vishwaroopam’ will match Hollywood movies in terms of the visual element, and
Madhu confidently says , "I would say yes. If the makers of ‘Matrix’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ like ‘Vishwaroopam’, you can imagine how the movie is."