April 5, 2006 -Of late, for their work done for the motion pictures, Oscar winners, after thanking the Academy and their mothers, may well thank India too. Indians are quietly entering a preserve of high-end creativity previously out of its reach: Hollywood. Now with Walt Disney and other studios planning to rework their old 2D films to 3D, corporates like Tatas are eyeing a major pie of Hollywood blockbusters. Indian visual effects artists are already making Superman fly, converting horses into centaurs for Narnia and planting an animated Garfield (the cat) in the hands of live actors.
The trend is not confined to only a handful of Indian studios but corporate houses who have entered this field rolling out not just 3D animation, but also computer graphics and virtual effects (VEX). Tata Elxsi, from the House of Tatas, has recently forayed into this segment and after having conquered Bollywood hearts, are out to take Hollywood by storm. Says Bhaskar Dutt, head marketing of Tata Elxsi (visual computing labs), "We are looking for bigger opportunities overseas and we are already working on a number of Hollywood pictures including one big blockbuster."
Following a handful of Indian studios that traversed a milestone this year when The Chronicles of Narnia became the first Hollywood movie with a substantial Indian contribution to be nominated for an Academy award for visual effects, Tata Elxsi not to be left out of the race, has done tests (auditions) for leading motion picture houses including Warner Brothers, Walt Disney and MGM. Recently the company also opened offices in Los Angles, London and Tokyo to market overseas and the results are already showing.
"We have completed the test for Disney's Snow White, which is going to be the first 2D film to be converted to 3D in the next three years." Recently, the company did a 3G-animation presentation directed by Steven Spielberg during New York City bid for the 2012 Olympic Games, which lost out to London. "Even though the Spielberg-directed film did not win, it still gave us an opportunity to work with him."
For this year, the Tatas, besides the blockbuster, have done work using 3D and VFX for One Night With The King, a biblical tale of Queen Ester, due for release in May, and are working for an Australian animation film revolving around a Koala bear character. "We are slowly moving up the value chain, doing more complicated work each time, thus rubbing shoulders with Hollywood bigwigs," he added.
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