First Virtual Production in Indian film industry, starred by Prithviraj Sukumaran.
Virtual Production is taking the global cinema industry by storm. It was already there in the Hollywood. ‘Avatar’ (2009) by James Cameron and Jon Favreau‘s two movies ‘The Jungle Book’ (2016) and ‘The Lion King’ (2019) are the exceptional examples of VP in filmmaking. After the COVID-19 pandemic, this technology it is going on a whole new level to match the requirements of current production needs.
Jon’s latest project ‘The Mandalorian‘ (2019) series 01 has been widely acclaimed by movie lovers and critics.
What is Virtual Production (VP)?
The Virtual Production technology is already coined as a gigantic shift in the way we make our traditional live action and Visual Effects movies. It’s a complete paradigm shift that gives much more control to the Director. He/she can see the final output directly at the time of live action shooting, for which earlier it was dependency of post production, editing and finalization process.
VP is the seamless outcome of various technologies of AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality), Gaming engines (Unreal Engine, Unity) and a whole lot of CGI (Computer Generated Imaginary). Such real time in-camera technology gives an immersive experience gives much more depth to the entire storytelling and film making process. Such production technique eliminates the typical chroma (green screen and blue screen) shooting. It is replaced by LED screens on which the background is projected. The bg can be previously done CG or live action shooting plate. This system creates a complete virtual environment for film making.
Many directors and top authorities of film industry have already coin it as a future of film making.
All about India’s first virtually shot film:
Now, India is also emerging to adapt it. We will see the Virtual Production in Indian film industry with upcoming movie of Mollywood super star actor Prithviraj Sukumaran. As per his Twitter announcement, it is a multilingual film and will be completely shot through groundbreaking Virtual Production techniques. He also shared the the first look poster which shows a sword in his hands and an eagle. It gives a hint that it is an epic periodic / mythological movie and he will be playing a warrior character.
As stated earlier, it will be the pioneer movie for Indian film industry in the arena of Virtual Production. Name of this mega budget movie is not decided yet. It will be released in five major languages of India – Malayalam, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada.
Gokulraj Baskar will be directing India’s first virtually shot film, with Malayalam actor Prithviraj in a lead role. He will also take care of the responsibility of concept designer. Talking about Prithviraj Sukumaran, apart from being an actor, he is also a director, producer and film distributor. The movie will be under Prithviraj Productions. Some of the best movies of South India star Prithviraj includes Ayyappanum koshiyum, Driving licence, 9, Adam Joan and Ezra. His upcoming movies are Aadujeevitham, Vaariyamkunan and Kaduva.
Production notes:
Listin Stephen is the producer behind India’s first Virtual Production movie. He is an Indian film producer and distributor, running a company titled ‘Magic Frames‘. His major contribution is in Malayalam and Tamil film industries.
This untitled movie is planned to shoot entirely in a studio at Ernakulam, Kerala. Gokulraj Baskar has done his side of in-depth research about this technology and several related other things, and now ready to make it on real platform. The much needed Virtual Production team for this high budget movie will be hired at the same studio for faster execution. As stated by Gokulraj, this movie is based on a Kerala mythology. Other cast will be revealed soon. Like a typical Indian movie, it will also have entertaining action shots and songs.
We hope that this movie get much more success and world acknowledgement than Baahubali 1 and 2. This Virtual Production movie of the Indian film industry will carve its own niche and inspire new breed of filmmakers.