Tata Elxsi creates visual effects for Yash Raj’s latest offering ‘New York’

Helps enhance the look of the movie by creating real world effects

New Delhi, July 03, 2009 – Visual Computing Labs (VCL), a division of Tata Elxsi Ltd and a leader in the animation and visual communications industry today announced that it has rendered unique visual effects for Bollywood’s most recent offering ‘New York’. Directed by Kabir Khan and produced by Aditya Chopra, the film stars John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Irrfan in pivotal roles.

Commenting on the project, Mr. Pankaj Khandpur, Creative Director, Visual Computing Labs, Tata Elxsi said, “We are venturing into an era where technology is no longer a limitation to bringing magic onto the screen. VCL has combined creativity and technology to create situations in ‘New York’ that do not exist in real life. The talented and dedicated team at VCL executed more than 300 shots in the movie. The complex shots were meticulously planned and executed to cast the magic of visual effects in one of the most awaited movies of the year. ‘New York’ has received a tremendous response from all audiences and is fast gaining critical acclaim both in India and worldwide. Clearly, the role of VFX in Indian cinema and television is increasingly being felt today as craftsmen try every possible trick to stand out from the rest of the pack.”

The opening credits of “New York” have a very distinct and artistic style where VCL created line drawings of New York City skylines which were matched to live aerial shots.

The World Trade Centre twin towers were created in about 5 shots to show a period before the 9×11 terror attacks. The challenge was to match the perspective, animation, lighting on a shot by shot basis.

In another scene a wide angle shot of a warehouse was meant to be shown blown up by explosives. The original scene was shot on a location in the US. In Mumbai a scale model of the ware house was created and rigged with explosives which went off in a well planned pyrotechnique procedure. Later on in VFX this exploding layer was matched in compositing with appropriate perspective and colour correction to make it look like the warehouse that actually exploded.

In a particular scene, sabotage on the location of a construction site has been shown wherein a heavy duty construction crane breaks apart and falls down as if it was an accident. VCL used CGI to create this scene along with live action shots.

The maximum amount of work was involved around populating the number of buildings and city views which crossed over 150 shots, especially in the climax. All the New York ‘backgrounds’ created had to be perfectly matched to the location foregrounds.

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 state of the art studios and multi-faceted creative and technology teams in Mumbai, India, VCL is now considered India’s preeminent motion picture visual effects studio has created special effects for many significant films like “Rab ne Bana di Jodi”, “Jodhaa Akbar”, ” “Taare Zameen Par” (India’s official Entry to the Oscars), “Rang De Basanti, ” “Dhoom 2”, “Gandhi My Father”, “Ta ra Rum Pum”, “Hum Tum” and many more. Roadside Romeo, India’s first fully animated theatrical motion picture was also India’s first nomination for the Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards in 2008 along with Wall-E, Waltz with Bashir and Kung Fu Panda. 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

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 India, Japan and the UK. 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 {at} tataelxsi.co(.)in

Manpreet Singh / Krityanand Kundan

Vaishnavi Corporate Communications,

9810286337 / 9990099562

manpreet.singh {at} vccpl(.)com / krityanand.kundan {at} vccpl(.)com