Tata Elxsi shines at the FICCI BAF Awards 2009

- Roadside Romeo is the Best Animated Feature Film of 2009
- Himani Fast Relief wins award for the Best VFX in a commercial

Bangalore, February 19, 2009- Roadside Romeo, India’s first purely-entertainment animated theatrical motion picture, created by Tata Elxsi Ltd.’s Visual Computing Labs (VCL) division has been awarded the FICCI BAF Award 2009 in the category of “Best Animated Feature Film” by FICCI-Frames in Mumbai. Tata Elxsi VCL also won the award for their outstanding visual effects in the TV commercial-Himani Fast Relief in the category of “Best VFX in a commercial”.

FICCI BAF awards instituted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and industry (FICCI) are part of Frames which is FICCI’s annual global convention covering the entire gamut of the Indian entertainment industry. FICCI BAF Awards which began in 2004 with only few categories has now grown to over 17 categories encompassing Animation, Gaming and VFX receiving participation from over 16 countries.

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Pankaj Khandpur, Creative Director, VCL, Tata Elxsi Ltd said, “It is an honour for all of us at Tata Elxsi to receive recognition from FICCI-Frames for the innovative work that we did to create all of the animation for Roadside Romeo and the visual effects for Himani Fast Relief. The recognition reiterates our commitment towards delivering world-class, quality Animation and Special Effects to the customers in India and worldwide. With world-class creative talent, a strong and experienced team of artists and advanced CG filmmaking technology and techniques, Tata Elxsi-VCL today has been able to establish itself as a leader in the animation and visual communication industry.”

“Roadside Romeo has been such a compelling project, and one that allowed our already talented team to further develop such incredible techniques. The movie departs significantly from the previous crop of animation films in India, in that it is a fully 3D animation movie, and follows a classic Bollywood formula as compared to the scores of 2D animated films based on mythology. At the peak, we had a 170 member team working on this project. What is worth mentioning here is that the production costs of Roadside Romeo was a fraction of the production costs for major Hollywood CGI animated films”, he further added.

Explaining the visual effects for Himani Fast Relief , Mr. Khandpur said, “ The concept of the film, had humans depicted as components of machinery, such as clock, bus, truck, cranes, factory hardware and so on. Human characters were shot against a green screen. The live characters were then rotoscoped and tracked on to appropriate background plates. In some cases, various parts of the same machine, such as the tyre & chassis (made out of humans) of the bus were shot separately and stitched together digitally to make it look like one well oiled unit plying on the road. Wherever it was not practical to shoot live, the characters had to be created in Computer Graphics. The challenge that we faced was to blend the various layers, to make it look natural in terms of the proportions, colour correction and overall look and feel. In addition, the work also involved multiplying the number of vehicles to increase traffic. Thanks to our team at VCL we have been able to deliver some stunning and sublime visual effects for this ad-film.”

A co-production of Walt Disney Pictures and India’s Yash Raj Films, “Roadside Romeo”, created by Tata Elxsi Ltd’s Visual Computing Labs (VCL) studios in Mumbai has also been nominated by Hollywood-based Visual Effects Society (VES) for delivering outstanding animation in “Roadside Romeo”. The 7th Annual VES Awards will be presented on Saturday, February 21 in Los Angeles. In January this year, “Roadside Romeo” was named “Best Animated Film” at the 15th Annual Star Screen Awards in Mumbai.

About FICCI BAF Awards
The first ever Animation Awards in India – the FICCI Best Animated Frames (BAF) Awards was instituted in 2004 to recognize excellence in the field of Animation, in its sixth year. Through the years, FICCI BAF Awards has grown steadily and now encompasses award categories not only in Animation but also in the VFX and Gaming Industries. In the year 2008, FICCI BAF Awards received over 400 entries from across 16 countries.

About Tata Elxsi Ltd’s  Visual Computing Labs
Visual Computing Labs (VCL), a division of Tata Elxsi Ltd, is a creative facility offering animation, digital visual effects and game asset building services  for the global entertainment and broadcast industry. With its global delivery center in Mumbai, India, VCL is a unique mix of engineering and creative skills, which provides solutions from scripting, pre/post production, character modelling & animation, VFX and development services among others. In addition to animating Roadside Romeo, Tata Elxsi Ltd’s VCL division --- now considered India’s preeminent motion picture visual effects studio has created special effects for  many significant films in like “Rab ne Bana di Jodi, “Jodhaa Akbar, ” “Taare Zameen Par” (India’s official Entry to the Oscars),  “Rang De Basanti, ” “Dhoom 2” and many more. VCL has also worked with other leading US entertainment companies including Sony Pictures Imageworks, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), Lionsgate, Mike Young Productions, MGM,  STARZ/Film Roman, and others.

About Tata Elxsi Ltd.

Tata Elxsi Limited(www.tataelxsi.com),  the Product Design arm of the multi-billion Tata Group, is a company focused on delivering outsourced Product Design and R&D services and solutions to customers worldwide. Core technology strengths, domain skills, system engineering capabilities, custom processes for design and proficient designers form the nucleus of the company.  Tata Elxsi is a SEI CMMi Level 5 company.

Headquartered in Bangalore, India, the company is supported by a strong network of offices all over the world. Tata Elxsi’s design services are supported by state-of-the-art design and development centers in Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram in India. Tata Elxsi’s local presence in the USA, UK, Germany, Canada and Japan assures easy access to the company’s global customers as well. Tata Elxsi is a public stock company traded in the Indian stock exchanges.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Sanaj Natarajan                                                             
Tata Elxsi Limited
Tel: 91 80 2297 9250
sanaj@tataelxsi.co.in