Prime Focus has provided 107 VFX shots, Digital Intermediate and supplied wide range of equipments for Vishesh Films’ latest romantic drama ‘Aashiqui 2’
The movie reflects the musical journey of two lovers Rahul (Aditya Roy Kapoor) and Arohi (Shraddha Kapoor) who go through love and hate, twist and turbulence, success and failure in their lives. Produced by Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar and Mukesh Bhatt, the movie is a remake of the 1990s smash hit- Aashiqui.
“Our goal for the feature was to create visuals that are instantly recognizable to the audience and to produce a movie that was powerful and cinematic in its own right. The team worked closely with director Mohit Suri and it was critical to keep our work invisible and maintain a visual consistency throughout the movie.” says Merzin Tavaria, Co- Founder and Chief Creative Director.
Speaking to Animationxpress.com’s Ishpreet Chandock about the DI work done on the movie ‘Aashiqui 2’, Rohan Desai, DI Head and Chief Colorist says, “Having worked with director Mohit Suri in the past for movies like Murder 2(2011) and Raaz – The Mystery Continues (2009), it was an absolute honor to work with him for the movie ‘Aashiqui 2’.”
“While briefing Mohit was very clear about the look and feel he envisioned. I am glad that the team not only matched his expectation but delivered the movie well before time. Also after our collaboration for Prince – It’s Showtime (2010) and Bhootnath (2008); it was an absolute delight to work with Vishnu Rao, DOP on ‘Aashiqui 2’, once again. He has brilliantly captured every mood and emotion of the main characters in the movie and we share a great rapport with him. “he concludes
The VFX work for the movie consisted of multiple rock concerts either that were shot on huge grounds or gigantic stadiums. While shooting, it wasn’t possible to create the required look and feel for a concert. Hence the production shot those sequences with limited crowd. “For the concert sequences, the basic plates for the crowd multiplication work were shot with a limited number of people which were later multiplied in post to bring out rock show feel. We had to ensure that multiplication matched the original frames and was totally undetectable.” says Mahesh Baria, VFX Supervisor.
Other key VFX sequences contributed by Prime Focus include extensive matte painting to portray the city of Goa, the digitally enhanced the rain sequence while Aditya is on the terrace, multiple PIP shots, recreating a city landscape for the house shot which was originally shot against chroma and motion graphics created for the award sequence.
Commenting on the look of the movie, S Manoj C.P.K Verma, Sr. Colorist says” Since the movie was of a romantic genre and with fresh actors, the overall look of the movie was graded to enhance the freshness and bring out by and large the screen chemistry between them. In general, the look for the film was clean and glossy. Special care was taken for the sequences that portrayed Aditya’s misery – we graded them with a greenish warm look. The songs of the movie were also graded as per the mood of the sequence. For instance, the popular song ‘Tum Hi Ho’ a cold, pink look was maintained whereas a pinkish look was maintained for the song ‘Hum Mar Jayenge’ that was shot in South Africa.”
Along with VFX and DI, Prime Focus has also supplied equipments including Alexa camera, Gemini Recorder, Ultra prime lenses (16mm,24mm, 32mm,50mm,85mm,135mm) and Angenieux Optimo Zoom (24-290 and 15-40) for the movie.