Animation
MEL crafts special effects for ‘Krishna Cottage’
MUMBAI: The Indian animation and special effects industry is coming of age with Maya Entertainment Limited (MEL) leading the way. After setting high standards with the superbly crafted film Jajantaram Mamantaram, Maya has another winner in Balaji Telefilms’ new film Krishna Cottage.
MEL creative head Chetan Desai said, “Visual effects give value addition to certain sequences in a film but the success of an SFX team would be that the effects are invisible, i.e. they enhance a scene visually without being in your face!”
While a normal film would have 30 seconds to a minute of special effects, Krishna Cottage has a smooth 10 to 12 minutes of visual wizardry that goes hand in glove with the script.
Some latest techniques like the ‘Time Slice’ and ‘Bullet time’, which need a multiple camera set-up to shoot the character from 180 degrees, were canned with a single camera for the first time in India while the good old computer did the work of some 35 cameras! With wire removal, freeze frame, Computer Graphics, artificial winds and leaves etc – lo and behold – you have a frozen Isha Koppiker in mid air!
Some other highlights in the movie are Rati Agnoihotri walking right between a day and night sequence in the same frame and also a car coming out of a tunnel, crashing straight into a wall of ice! Every single pixel of the scene is graphically created!
MEL marketing and communications head Rajnigandha Shekhawat says, “The crew at Balaji, specially the director Santram and EP Prakashji, were very professional and made us feel at home even though this was our first venture together.”
MEL creative head Chetan Desai said, “Visual effects give value addition to certain sequences in a film but the success of an SFX team would be that the effects are invisible, i.e. they enhance a scene visually without being in your face!”
While a normal film would have 30 seconds to a minute of special effects, Krishna Cottage has a smooth 10 to 12 minutes of visual wizardry that goes hand in glove with the script.
Some latest techniques like the ‘Time Slice’ and ‘Bullet time’, which need a multiple camera set-up to shoot the character from 180 degrees, were canned with a single camera for the first time in India while the good old computer did the work of some 35 cameras! With wire removal, freeze frame, Computer Graphics, artificial winds and leaves etc – lo and behold – you have a frozen Isha Koppiker in mid air!
Some other highlights in the movie are Rati Agnoihotri walking right between a day and night sequence in the same frame and also a car coming out of a tunnel, crashing straight into a wall of ice! Every single pixel of the scene is graphically created!
MEL marketing and communications head Rajnigandha Shekhawat says, “The crew at Balaji, specially the director Santram and EP Prakashji, were very professional and made us feel at home even though this was our first venture together.”
MUMBAI: History is getting a fresh rewrite this time with code, creativity and a longer arc in mind. Lens Vault Studios has announced its first original production, Bal Tanhaji, marking the official entry of the newly launched, tech-driven studio into India’s evolving entertainment landscape.
Arriving six years after the box-office success of Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior, the new project expands the universe rather than revisiting familiar ground. Bal Tanhaji explores uncharted narrative territory, signalling a clear shift from one-off cinematic spectacles to long-format, world-building storytelling designed for digital-first audiences.
At the heart of this ambition is Prismix Studios, the in-house generative AI and technology arm powering the creative engine behind the show. The studio’s approach blends storytelling with next-generation tools, aiming to reimagine how Indian IPs are created, scaled and sustained beyond theatrical releases.
For Lens Vault Studios chairman Ajay Devgn the new venture represents a deliberate step beyond traditional cinema. The focus is firmly on building long-form intellectual properties across fiction and non-fiction, tailored to changing viewing habits and platform-led consumption. He said the studio intends to explore formats that remain largely untapped, while drawing on the team’s experience with large-scale cinematic storytelling.
Lens Vault Studios founder and CEO Danish Devgn echoed that sentiment, describing Bal Tanhaji as the studio’s first generative-AI-led IP and the starting point of a broader vision. The aim, he noted, is to carry forward the legacy of the Tanhaji universe while connecting with younger audiences through a blend of powerful narratives and emerging technologies.
With Bal Tanhaji, Lens Vault Studios is planting its flag early not just launching a show, but signalling a larger play for cinematic universes that live, grow and evolve across platforms. If this debut is any indication, the future of Indian storytelling may be as much about imagination as it is about innovation.
