Creating illusions on screen is his forte. Like giving barren lands a look of a lake, adding flamingo birds to them, making a sunset seem live on a bright afternoon, adding dust to the surroundings, bringing in heavy showers on a sun filled day or tucking the moon just at the right place in the sky are some of the things which Abhilash Nanda and his team incorporated into the film Jal. And this is the film that fetched Abhilash the Rajat Kamal at the 61st National Film Awards ceremony held recently, in visual effects category.
‘’It was a crazy project and too realistic a movie. The effects had to look real unlike other regular VFX projects. Creative and organic use of visual effects to enhance the realistic aspect of the movie was more challenging for our team but we were successful,’’ Abhilash says.
Being recognised for his debut movie Jal was nothing less than a dream come true for Abhilash, who founded his own VFX company Alien Sense Films Pvt Ltd with his colleague Ranjan Rath in 2010. He has been constantly striving for new challenges, goals and raising the bar for himself.
Currently he is working with Nila Madhab Panda for his film Kaun Kitne Paani Mein which is based on water scarcity and set in Odisha. Working for movies like these gives him pleasure and pride. ‘‘This Kunal Kapoor, Radhika Apte and Gulshan Grover starrer movie has got many natural VFX scenes which would be difficult for the audience to identify,’’ says Abhilash who also has independently founded Plan A Entertainment with the debut project Kaun Kitne Paani Mein.
Remembering his early days in Mumbai, Abhilash says he started working as a roto artist in Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal, Drona, Aladin and Aa Dekhen Zara. Working with Tamil project Unnaipol Oru and Hollywood movie Gulliver’s Travels were some of the milestones that have made the visualiser achieve success.
Abhilash feels though India has grown as a hub for visual effects and animation in the last few years, there are still large opportunities to be tapped. ‘’India has become more and more popular as an outsourcing destination for overseas firms. The successful release of Dhoom 3, Chennai Express, Krrish 3 has opened the doors for visual effects as a lucrative career option. Because of sudden popularity of 3D conversion films, many studios take up these projects for profit making,’’ says Abhilash.
Explaining the difference between visual effects and special effects, he says visual effects involve the integration of live-action footage and generated imagery to create environment which look realistic, but would be dangerous, expensive and impractical. With the help of VFX technology, some more designed and unexpected scenes can add more thrill to the movie. ‘’We are still in developing stage and there is a long way to go before we make movies like Gravity, Life of Pie, Hugo or Avatar,’’ says Abhilash.
The effects man is all game for working on Odia films. ‘’I would love to do Odia films if any interesting project comes up.’’