SFX sells

“In the earlier Ramayan, we could work with a maximum four layers of visuals in a frame at a time,” says Jyoti Sagar, co-producer of Ramayan on NDTV Imagine and Arslaan on Sony, and also director of visual effects in Sagar Arts. He explains, “If one layer had Kumbhkaran, others had mountains, rivers or clouds in them. But now with advanced technology we can work with 125 layers in a frame. For every detail, we can delegate a layer.” He claims the scale in which visual effects are used in Arslaan or Ramayan has never been attempted on Indian TV before. “Right from enhancing the look of a real place to creating mountains, rivers, forests, replicating army, making sabres, robots and even dragons that look like real baby dinosaurs—we are doing a lot,” he says, adding that they have designed a bird on which Shani would be seen riding in the forthcoming show, Mahima Shani Dev Ki on NDTV Imagine.

VFX is also rightly used in Mahaa-bhaarat. “We are doing a lot of colour correction in Mahaabhaarat,” says Suraj Rao, creative head of the show, adding that other than the war sequences, VFX is applied in the sequences revolving around lord Krishna greatly. “We used high-end effects also to show Ganga’s appearance,” he says. But Rao also adds that VFX needs a lot of time, which is often tough to allocate while working on daily soaps.
The director of composite animation film such as My Friend Ganesha, Rajiv S Ruia, who is ready with more such films, says he likes the special effects in Ramayan and Mahaabhaarat but adds, “Too much of it might harm the flow of the story.” Animator Rajesh Chakraborty, creative lead in Auryn India, feels that since people now are exposed to wide array of VFX, they expect a lot. “Makers now have to take care of detailing,” he cautions. However, Kaushal points out, “Ultimately it’s content that matters. VFX could be the icing on the cake, but not the cake itself.”