Akbar
Khan's Epic Period film Taj Mahal touted as one of the costliest
films ever in Bollywood made at budgets around Rs 500 Million is all
set to release on November 18.
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Revolving
around the eternal love story behind one of the seven wonders of the
world, the mere mention of Taj Mahal as a movie arouses expectations
of some great art design, cinematography and period costumes.
Going by the publicity stills and promos, lovers of Mughal style art
are in for a treat. Needless to say, the subject also demands a good
deal of VFX & CG and Taj Mahal does boast of some good
amount of VFX work done by Chennai based Oysterr, which is headed
by Venkata Krishnan.
Speaking to Animation 'xpress, Producer Director Akbar
Khan said,"The subject of the film demanded technical
and artistic finesse in all departments and that includes VFX. I am
very happy with the result that Oysterr has provided. We involved
the VFX team right since pre production because we knew that the earlier
we involved the VFX team, the better results we would be able to get"
Oysterr Chief Venkat Krishnan shared "It was an awe that turned
out to be awesome. An assignment that demanded every cell of VFX architecture
tested altered and redesigned. We had to research a lot due to the
subject and Akbar Khan's treatment of it which demanded a very realistic
feel. In fact we found ourselves lost beneath the data we collected,
but all of it was worth the effort"
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"We
worked very close with Akbar Khan who was very clear about what
he wanted. We kept the workflow systematic and functionality structural.
It wasn't an easy task to simulate the historically realistic feel
yet we have delivered in line with the expectations" he added.
On being asked to share VFX prod specs and details, Venkat refrained
saying,"The objective is to let the audience go and experience
the story, we can discuss the VFX post release"
There is a breed of film makers and cinematographers that believe
that CG and digital technology cannot replace the richness and depth
of film and sets, another breed treats VFX and CG as an art form
as deep as any other. On being asked as to what his perspective
on VFX and CG as an art form was? Akbar Khan agreed that VFX and
CG are as deep an art form as any other element of Film Making.
However commenting on the usage of CG for realism and using it for
enhancing the art direction, Khan citing the example of Jurassic
Park and Troy opined that,"Every time we see a movie that has
got some new level of VFX and CG in it we are overwhelmed, but as
time passes by we can over repeated viewings observe certain flaws.
Be it Hollywood or Bollywood, we still have not reached that desired
level of perfection where absolute realism could be achieved through
CG"
Taj Mahal is produced and directed by Akbar Khan under the banner
Mashreq Communications Limited. Other credits include music by Naushad,
cinematography by R. M. Rao, Art Direction by Ratnakar Phadke and
VFX by Oysterr.
Oysterr has also recently seven minutes of VFX work on Malyalam
movie Ananthabadhram which is directed by hotshot director cum cinematographer
Santosh Sivan. The movie deals with super natural powers and is
a clash betwen good and evil. The VFX for the movie involved a lot
of live and CG compositing, rotoscopy and camera match moves.
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