What’s the deal with movies nowadays being high on VFX and CGI and low on plots? That’s the question cinephiles are raising after watching Ayan Mukerji’s Brahmastra and the teaser of Adipurush. Moreover, it’s also being reported that there are several projects, including Ram Setu, Ramayana, Krrish 4, among others, which are likely to be high on VFX too. We asked industry experts to weigh in on this new phenomenon.
Trade expert Joginder Tuteja explains that every “filmmaker wants something out-of-the-box to pull audiences to theatres. That’s why when it comes to cinematic experience, most of them are focusing on VFX nowadays”. He adds, “Gone are those days when you could release mid-budget, mid-scale films with constrained visuals.”
In response to the criticism that VFX is being used as a marketing tool to promote films, trade analyst Atul Mohan says, “content is king, marketing is queen”. He says, “Brahmastra was a great example of this. They were the first ones to make a movie that was high on VFX and never had been attempted before in India. And there is no harm in using that for marketing. You have seen several movies featuring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, but VFX was the film’s USP.”
Film critic and trade analyst Komal Nahta feels that all these debates about VFX as well as pre-release hype are meaningless and there is no harm in promoting a film before its release.
But he is quick to point, “What’s going wrong is not the promotion, but fringe elements creating controversies around any and every film. These days it has become fashionable to criticize. Social media is full of frustrated people whose full-time work is to run down efforts and money spent. Content is important but VFX aisa hai, ye character waisa dikhta hai, ye galat hai, ye sahi hai. Who are you to pass those judgments?.”
Whereas, Tuteja feels not just audiences, but even filmmakers go overboard discussing these elements, and that’s where they go wrong when they disclose the film’s budget and create unwarranted pressure on the stakeholders. “Instead, go ahead, make a movie and release it. Do not talk much about the number of days you spent on VFX or money invested in the film. When you keep the expectations in check, the kind of response that will come will also not be as polarised as you see nowadays. You talk so much about it and people start expecting the moon, and when the results are not on the same line, disappointment follows,” he elaborates.
Given that director Om Raut has helmed Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior, which was praised for its VFX and CGI, Nahta weighs in on the criticism that his next Adipurush is facing.
“You can’t expect a filmmaker who has made Tanhaji to purposely do something wrong. If somebody feels the character does not look like Raavan, he/she needs to understand that it’s the director’s interpretation. People can have different interpretations, isn’t it? You applauded this man (Om Raut) for Tanhaji, and now you are taking the same man to the gallows,” he opines.
That being said, technological advancements in cinema is only a welcome change but excess of everything is bad. Hence, while VFX is extremely essential for certain films to achieve the desired results, there has to be a balance that’s there.
Abhishek De, Creative Director, FutureWorks shares, “Films like Brahmastra and Adipursh need VFX to achieve what the film was supposed to talk about. One is a period film another one has mythological characters and that cannot be created without VFX. For example, when you talk about Ram Setu, you cannot create a set like that and shoot people walking on it. However, how you do it is the vision and job of the creative team and it may differ from person to person.”