Hollywood calling

OUTSOURCING: Chandigarh's Compact Disc attracts companies outsourcing animation work.

How many in Hollywood know that there is a city called Chandigarh in north India? I would have presumed not many. Apparently, they not only know about the city but have outsourced animation contracts to the city-based production and distribution house "" Compact Disc India.

The digital and animation division of Compact Disc is currently working on two interesting projects "" for San Jose based Red Octane for a $4.5 million full-length feature film Life After Death and on a $12.5 million project Hustle and Bustle.

"Our team would be involved in preparation of the script, character design, story board development, voice over and layout development for Life After Death," says Suresh Kumar, chairman of Compact Disc India.

The project will add close to half a million dollars to the topline of Compact Disc for six months of work, though the entire schedule of the film is pegged at 30 months.

Simultaneously, the company is working with one of Hollywood's top three studios wherein the complete work including pre-production, production and post production has been outsourced.

"The production Hustle and Bustle is about two clumsy boys who have got the power of Superman and Spiderman. Such movies take 34 months to make," says Kumar. The target date to start work is May 1.

Explaining the advantages of outsourcing, Kumar says there is a significant cost saving for the outsourcing entities. "The production of a movie like Hustle and Bustle, which has 12 animated characters, would have gone up to $70-80 million if it would have been developed in the US," he says.

On the home front, the production house has recently completed a full length feature film, Friends Forever in which a 3D (three dimensional) animated character Zampano has been shown interacting alongwith live action sequences and characters.

Ashmit Patel, Hrishita Bhatt, Shweta Konnur, Tinnuu Anand are some of the lead stars for this film, slated to be released by October.

Kumar also has plans to tap the international audience through a work on Osho, also known as Bhagwan Rajneesh to some.

"The title of the movie is Guru of Sex. It will be a controversial movie," he quips adding that the story is based on the experiences of a young woman of iconic beauty (a journalist by profession), who sensed that something is missing in her life and is touched by a Guru "" Bhagwan Rajneesh.

The cost of this film, scheduled to be released in early 2007, is about Rs 10 crore. The 45-day movie shoot in Cambodia, and Laos, is slated to start in August.

Also in the pipeline is a Rs 15 crore commercial masala movie with a US-Iraq theme starring Akshay Khanna and south Indian actor Madhavan. And you thought all the action in movies was in the country's west and south.