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`Tis but an illusion
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Best visual effects are those that don't show up on screen. And, we have it in us to create those illusions, visual effects producer Madhusudanan tells K. JESHI
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Pic: S. Siva Saravanan
REMEMBER THE 38 minutes of stunning graphics in Aalavandhan (Abhay in Hindi), the kind never before seen on Indian cinema? He had a major role to play in creating the miniatures, computer generated sequences and violent scenes involving the psycho-character in the movie using 2D animation.
He made an entry into Hollywood with his visual effects in a small sequence that followed the title in the `Lord of the Rings - Return of the King'. He is Madhusudanan, visual effects producer and a National Award winner for his work in Aalavandhan. He was recently in town to participate in a technical seminar on `Career opportunities in 3D animation, visual effects and game development' organised by Image College of Arts, Animation and Technology(ICAT) held at the Heritage Inn.
What's illusion?
Start off by asking the artiste what illusion is all about, and he says: "A visual effect. You take 15 people and multiply them into thousands and present the illusion that it is for real."
How did it feel to work in a Hollywood film? "Great. It's recognition for every Indian. We were a 12-member Indian team which executed the job for a period of three months at Padmalaya studios in Hyderabad," says Madhusudanan, the only Indian to qualify for the membership of the Visual Effects Society (VES), Los Angeles. The membership authorises one to work as a visual effects producer in any Hollywood movie.
Hollywood-Kollywood link
Being part of the development committee of VES, Madhu is already in the process of bringing an international delegation to India to explore possibilities of setting up an international forum. "A forum that covers everything in films, from film-making to post-production. It's time we thought on the lines of combinations like Kamal Hassan and Steven Spielberg, Bruce Willis and Mani Ratnam and globalise the entertainment industry, which has immense potential. The Hollywood guys are willing and someone has to make a start here. The visit of the international delegation will kickstart the process," he adds. The international delegation will have names like Peter Jackson, director of the `Lord of the Rings' Trilogy, Tim Mc Govern-Visual Effects Supervisor of `Total Recall', Goerge Mecret, who did the visual effects for `Cliffhanger', `Anaconda' and `Starship Troopers', Michael Pacer-producer of `Speed-II' and Jon Labrie. Mention Aalavandhaan and Madhu's face lights up. The reason is simple! Kamal Hassan is his matinee idol. "It was a dream come true working with Kamal. He is a great technician and visualises the future. It's unfortunate that the audience is not mature enough to understand the special effects and graphics used in the film (38 minutes of stunning graphics in 364 shots)."
Flashback time
Madhu's breakthrough in movies came in 1995 with the Vijayakanth-starrer Alexander. Movies like Devadhai, Oruvan and Desiya Geetham, Anbudan and Thenali and Maniratnam's Alaipayuthe followed. But, it was Aalvandhaan that brought him into the limelight. Talk about the creative freedom allowed to a visual effects producer in Kollywood and he's not amused. "Here, people are not willing to experiment because of time and budget constraints. The `Lord of the Rings' trilogy was shot in 7 years with a budget of 28 billion dollars. Here, we make movies in 3 months. It's not necessary that every action scene has to be laden with graphics. Use it only when there is a risk for the artist like in Alaipayuthe (the shot where Shalini gets sandwiched between two cars). We worked on it for two months and on screen, it lasted just 5.5 seconds," he adds.
Ask him what his strength is, and he states: "It's the passion to achieve something in life. I started my career selling computers in Coimbatore and it was Terminator-II that triggered the spark in me to explore multimedia and visual effects." So, what is his dream? "To win an Oscar. Also to work with director Shankar and actor Aamir Khan. They believe in experimenting." Right now Madhu has bagged Shekar Kapur's bilingual Paani (in English and Hindi) and is likely to be roped in for the next Harry Potter project through Cine Site, a visual effects company in the U.K.
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