Cutting edge: (top and middle) Special effects scenes from Taare Zameen Par; (above) the animated crocodile in the Alpenliebe ad

For a battle sequence in Mughal-E-Azam, director K. Asif had actually hired an army comprising 2,000 camels, 4,000 horses and 8,000 troops. The military extravaganza of the 1960 magnum opus will soon have competition from next week’s mega release Jodhaa Akbar. In fact, the latter’s war scenes may well surpass Mughal-E-Azam in terms of size and grandeur, although director Ashutosh Gowarikar has put in a mere fraction of the effort on the ground. But then Gowarikar has a secret weapon — visual effects (VFX).

Gowarikar is not alone in giving his film the benefit of VFX. Indian cinema today has taken to VFX in a big way, conjuring up breathtaking scenes with the help of some neat technological legerdemain. So whether it is the stadium full of cheering crowds in Chak De! India and Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal, or the devastating fire in Om Shanti Om, (OSO) or the spiders in Taare Zameen Par (TZP), all were created courtesy VFX.

Most of the hockey scenes in Chak De had to be shot in an empty stadium as crowd management was a problem. So it was left to the Red Chillies VFX team to “fill” them. “We filled the stadiums and created the score boards. Even the flying balls in penalty shots were done by us,” says Keitan Yadav, COO, Red Chillies VFX, which worked on the visual effects for Chak De and OSO. “The challenge is to let the VFX remain invisible and we did that in almost all the 250-300 shots in the film,” says a proud Yadav.

VFX also played a big part in films like Guru and Goal. “There were hardly 100 people when Abhishek Bachchan is shown addressing a crowd. But our crowd multiplication technique was such that it seemed as though the whole place was brimming with people,” says Merzin Tavaria, chief creative officer, Prime Focus, Mumbai. Tavaria has worked on films like Guru, Saawariya and the Hollywood hit 28 Weeks Later.

Sometimes, a particular VFX sequence may require months of painstaking research and development. For instance, it took six months to create the Dhoom Tana song in OSO featuring Deepika Padukone with yesteryear stars. Yadav and his team scanned hundreds of negatives from 70s movies and zeroed in on three songs from the films Amrapali, Saccha Jhutha and Jay-Vijay.

“We did a bit of R&D and invented a system through which the cameraman and director could actually see Deepika dancing with Sunil Dutt, Rajesh Khanna or Jeetendra while she would emote in front of the camera and in this way we could get the lip synching, body chemistry and eye contact spot on,” says Yadav.

The negatives of the old films had to be restored to the best possible quality while the current shots were degraded slightly so that the characters looked as if they were in the same environment.

“It was the visual effects that made the song look perfect,” recalls Farah Khan, director of OSO. And even Padukone couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw the song on screen. “It was an amazing experience to see myself on screen with the legends. I am quite amazed with what visual effects can do for a movie,” she says.

Indeed, some of the most awesome scenes in recent Indian movies have had clever VFX behind them. Take the fort heist scene in Dhoom: 2, for instance. “The actual set was a very small fraction of what it really looked like,” says Bhaskar Dutt, head, marketing, Visual Computing Labs (VCL), Tata Elxsi.

Other recent movies that had a large component of VFX include Krrish, Tara Rum Pum, and TZP. And taking the cue from films, even TV commercials have begun to use VFX. The Alpenliebe ad featuring Kajol and a crocodile is a prime example.

Strangely, up until a few years ago, Indian VFX outfits — with their top notch technical teams — got work chiefly in the West. Their expertise was eagerly sought by Hollywood, but local film-makers remained indifferent to the kind of visual magic they could create. But that has changed today.

“Directors are now aware of the possibilities of visual effects and animation. Nowadays we are involved in the very early stages of projects, almost at the ideation stage. So the film shoot is planned with the effects in mind,” says Dutt of VCL. “This is a change from the past when VFX was mostly used for damage control and to clean up the shots,” points out Yadav.

However, Bollywood is yet to embrace VFX as enthusiastically as southern film-makers. “Film-makers there are more adventurous and tech-savvy. And the movies have very high quality visual effects,” says Jai Natarajan, executive vice-president, Maya Entertainment Ltd, Mumbai.

But there is little doubt that VFX in India has come of age and is here to stay. “In today’s scenario where films have lots of action, thrills, spectacular song sequences, etc, the importance of VFX has increased tremendously,” says Sai Prasad, director of the Prasad Group which owns Prasad EFX, Hyderabad.

Another positive sign is that more and more Indian VFX outfits are scouting for work within the country rather than look to Western studios for visual effects assignments. “Although we have not been involved in any Indian movie yet, we definitely would be interested if somebody approaches us with a project that involves high quality, innovative and challenging work,” says Saraswathi Balgam, director, India, Rhythm and Hues (R&H). R&H has worked on such Hollywood productions as Alvin and the Chipmunks and is also in the race for this year’s Oscar for its VFX in the movie The Golden Compass.

However, VFX studios point out that Indian productions simply do not spend the kind of money that Hollywood does on creating visual effects. “If you look at the VFX budgets of a Hollywood live action film and compare it with ours, you have the answer,” says Dutt. VCL has worked in films such as Spider-Man 3, Ghostrider, and One Night with the King.

Still, even in India, new benchmarks are being set in VFX. Coming soon at a theatre near you are films like Drona, Toonpur ka Superhero, Roadside Romeo (a Disney-Yashraj production), Aladdin and Mumbai 2050 — all of which boast of large doses of VFX.

So keep your eyes peeled and get ready for some breakneck visual effects — India ishtyle.