In this edition of Industry Spotlight, industry veteran Nishit Shetty, Business Head & Chief Business Development Officer for Red Chillies VFX & Red Chillies Color, joined Creative First for an enriching discussion on the current landscape and scope of the VFX and post production industry in India.

Nishit Shetty started the conversation by explaining that in this era, change is a certainty, especially when it comes to media and entertainment. Be it in production, acquisition, or technology, film & content making is evolving at a rapid pace.

He identified two persistent challenges in the VFX department: budget and time. According to him, post-production needs to be given more time, and the budget to do so should not be an afterthought. While he agreed there is no set formula to estimating the total percentage of a budget that should be allocated to post-production and VFX, it is easier to foresee and plan when the post-production team is involved at the beginning of the process. Nishit recognized that more and more people are taking post-production seriously from the onset of their projects.

With numerous types of content being in creation, he acknowledged that there is plenty of work to go around for post-production companies. One thing he suggested studios focus on is talent retention. In order to produce good, consistent work, this needs to be a priority for a studio.

On the subject of the COVID impact on the VFX industry, Shetty acknowledged that this was the first time clients trusted their content to be worked on from home. In fact, according to Shetty, Gunjan Saxena was completely done via work from home, leaving aside the final color correction which must be done in a studio. Though work from home was a success, it’s not always the ideal setup. Shetty believes organic interactions contribute to the final outcome.

Nishit mentioned a very interesting point: many visual effects need to be invisible. This means the audience cannot even detect it was done, such as an entirely replaced background.

As the conversation wrapped up, he praised the government’s initiatives for helping to grow the industry through incentives and increasing overall awareness. According to him, this contributed to the presence of many international studios, and an overall message to the world that India is serious about post-production.

As for Red Chillies VFX, things couldn’t be busier. The company is currently working on the Forest Gump remake, Lal Singh Chaddha & Raksha Bandhan, both releasing on the same date, plus a number of other projects.

For the full interview, please watch the video.