CHENNAI: With everybody raving about how computer generated imagery (CGI) and visual effects have come of age in S S Rajamouli’s Baahubali, here’s surprising news — Vijay’s upcoming fantasy flick Puli has even more CGI generated scenes than Baahubali. “When Chimbudevan and I initially designed the film, they wanted to incorporate 2,600 scenes with graphics,” revealed R C Kamalakannan, CG supervisor for the flick. A little after, budgetary sense prevailed and they cut it down to 2,200 scenes, but even that is much more than Baahubali, “When we worked on Naan Ee, there were 1,200 scenes and in Magadheera, there were 1,600. So, out of curiosity, I asked Rajamouli how many scenes they had done in CG in Baahubali and he said that it was just about 2,000,” said the vastly experienced graphics expert, who has worked with Prasad EFX and Makuta VFX on those films.
Working out of a studio in Keelkattalai, Kamalakannan said that about 160 freelance animators across the world were involved in different parts of the Vijay film. “We have a common workflow management system that allots this work to animators in Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Netherlands, Iran and in studios in Chennai and Bangalore. Everybody’s on edge because we are working on a tight timeline and they want the film finished before September,” he added. The film’s producers SKT Studios announced that they were targeting September 17 as the release day, to cash in on the Vinayaga Chathurthi weekend.
Kamalakannan drew a picture of how they’d split the work for the film starring Shruti Haasan, Hansika Motwani and Sridevi along with Vijay, “All the major assets are designed by us locally. With Naan Ee it was the fly and in this case it is the palace and mythical kingdom that Vijay is in. Other than that all the other effects and smaller touches are split up and done by the animators in other countries,” he said. When asked how much of the work had been completed he sighed first and then said with a laugh, “We’ve been working on the assets since March 2014, but then they began shooting last November. Whenever they gave us completed frames we would begin work on it. To be honest, everything is a work in progress and there’s no question of finishing it. We’ll just keep on making corrections till it’s time to hand it over!” he said. “Even with Magadheera, I gave a final version 20 days after the film released. It went on the Blu-ray version,” he added.
Has Baahubali’s success and spectacle made them rethink their strategy? “Yes,” he said with vehemence, “There were so many parts of Baahubali where you knew that it was done with graphics. That sort of defeats the purpose because we don’t want people to know which is which. Entire forests, armies, castles and wars may be done with CG but people should think its real. We’re trying to make sure people can’t spot the differences in Puli.”