India leads global VFX industry with rich history, cutting-edge technology

History and tech power have ensured India remains at the forefront of the global visual effects business

Namit Malhotra is obsessed with showcasing Ramayana to the world. Earlier this year, the chief executive officer (CEO) of visual effects (VFX) major DNEG, announced a tie-up with actor Yash’s Monster Mind Creations to produce Ramayana. 

Nitesh Tiwari, who made India’s most successful film, Dangal (2016), will direct this epic tale of good versus evil. The London-based DNEG has seven Oscar wins for its work on films like Dune, Inception and Interstellar.

“The ambition is to stand next to the Dunes and the Avatars and the biggest movies in the world. Brahmastra (which DNEG co-produced) and Kalki (which it has worked on) are great but Ramayana will set a new paradigm,” says Malhotra, founder of DNEG’s parent, the Rs 4,167 crore (revenues FY 2023-24) Mumbai-based Prime Focus. 

In July this year, DNEG raised $200 million from UAE’s United Al Saqer Group giving it a valuation of over $2 billion. A part of this money will go towards producing films such as Ramayana among others.

This ambition, scale and capital then is the biggest indicator of the changes sweeping the estimated $30 billion global market for visual effects and the role India plays.

“India is a necessary hub for any scalable global play in the visual effects world,” says Biren Ghose, managing director, Asia Pacific for the €784 million (Rs 7,116 crore: FY 2022) Technicolor Group.

It has worked on Life of Pi, Harry Potter and Gladiator among others.

The annual FICCI-EY report on media and entertainment puts the market for animation, visual effects and post production in India at Rs 11,400 crore in 2023.

Of this, visual effects constitute the biggest chunk at Rs 5,400 crore: and it is growing the fastest at over 83 per cent. There are, however, significant overlaps between the three; for instance, DNEG co-produced Garfield, an animation film. Technicolor has Mikros, a brand that does only animation work.

“In many genres such as period films, horror, war, dystopian world, it is not possible to make a film without the extensive use of VFX,” points out Keitan Yadav, chief operating officer, Red Chillies VFX. These genres, which are essentially about big screen spectacle films, are the ones working best at the office globally. A bulk of the top hits in recent years involve special effects that are integral to the story whether it is the recently released Deadpool and Wolverine, the Mission Impossible movies or Indian films such as Munjya, Kalki, Jawan or Stree.

Then there are the scores of streaming series such as Rings of Power or Stranger Things that are absolutely impossible to make without visual effects.

Ghose explains the structure of the visual effects business and India’s place in it. “The creation of visual effects comprises a series of 10-12 key skill sets, most of which have increasing complexity across the computer graphics pipeline. In the simpler skill sets such as Roto, almost 80 per cent of the global workshare is delivered from India. Higher end tasks such as FX, hair, fur and groom, compositing, advanced rigs were pioneered in India by Technicolor Group’s studios,” he says. 

Between 2010 and 2016 it built capacity across every aspect of the visual effects pipeline. DNEG has also done that going from 700 artistes in London when Prime Focus acquired it in 2013 to over 10,000 across the world currently.

On the other hand, there is Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, which is essentially a production studio. 

In 2006 it set up a VFX studio that has done high-end work on many big Indian films --Shershaah, Attack, Fan, Ra One, Zero and Lal Singh Chaddha among others. It has, however, been chary of Hollywood since much of it was low-end to begin with.

By the time high-end work started coming in, the pandemic struck followed by the writer’s strike in Hollywood. However, before Hollywood could revive, the Indian market did and “now our pipeline (of projects) is packed,” says Yadav. 

The capacity constraint is also because Red Chillies remains firmly local, operating from one location in Mumbai.

“We specialise in big VFX movies and the Indian space is topmost for us though scaling up is on our minds,” says Yadav.

Red Chillies and its domestic focus illustrates one of the big triggers for the global industry’s connection with India on VFX. The country's reputation and capability for hi-tech work combined with the fact that India is the world’s largest movie making country with a robust creative ecosystem and an intrinsic understanding of storytelling.

This last bit becomes crucial when visual effects are not just a tool for telling the story but they are a part of the story. 

Malhotra relates the story of Interstellar where director Christopher Nolan’s vision was to show what happens when you travel through time and space through the wormhole.

With no evidence of what that means, no imagery, DNEG worked with theoretical physicist and Nobel prize winner Kip Thorne using his scientific formulae, coding those into various simulations to render something that scientific journals praised too.

“VFX will lead the next generation of filmmakers across all forms of audio-visual storytelling,” says Ghose.

The dark clouds in this happy marriage of technology and storytelling?

Though these effects could cost anywhere from 2-3 per cent to half a film/series’ budget most of the big firms struggle to make a profit. That explains DNEG’s move to co-producing. It adds scale and a nice upside if the film is successful. The big issue in scaling up remains upskilling and retaining talent.

“Over the last 15 years, from our India ecosystem, we have given the global industry over 10,000 skilled professionals. This talent was developed to a world-class standard through our learning and development initiatives on the job, and at the Technicolor Academy,” says Ghose.

For a fast growing, globalised business, this battle for talent will remain a recurring feature.