Kalki's visual worldThe company then brought its state-of-the-art visual effects to Kalki, bringing to life the world set 6,000 years in the future.
Over 1,000 people worked on the VFX of Kalki for close to a year.
VFX powering Indian films"When you are mounting such a film (Kalki), you got to be able to back it up with resources.
The VFX industry in India is estimated to touch a revenue of Rs 6,300 crore by 2024.
Listed on Indian exchanges, Prime Focus posted a profit of Rs 488.49 crore in FY24 versus Rs 194.49 crore profit in FY23.
Amitabh Bachchan's look from Kalki 2989 AD (1) (1)
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Amitabh Bachchan, the Big B of Bollywood, stole the show in the blockbuster Kalki that has so far collected Rs 900 crore at the box office, worldwide.
Complementing Bachchan's performance in the film is the visual effects, which remind Indian audiences of the effects they last saw in Hollywood ventures Dune and Star Wars.
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For more than 900 visual effect shots in Kalki, a team of 1,200 artistes came together, powered by many VFX studios but largely led by Double Negative (DNEG), which is a subsidiary of Prime Focus.
Prime Focus was started by Namit Malhotra in a garage in 1997. In 2014, through its creative services subsidiary, Prime Focus World (PFW), the company had acquired DNEG, one of the largest visual effects providers to the global film industry.
Prime Focus and DNEG together went on to build many cinematic universes for movies across markets, including Hollywood and the Indian film industry, with as many as seven Academy Awards in their kitty for films including Interstellar, Ex Machina and others.
Kalki's visual world
The company then brought its state-of-the-art visual effects to Kalki, bringing to life the world set 6,000 years in the future.
"Over two decades ago, I felt that there was no reason why we, as filmmakers and audience, wouldn’t want to have the same experience as Hollywood, especially when we are not lacking craft or abilities to tell stories. We had to bridge that technology gap and give it into the hands of our Indian filmmakers so that they can tell the stories the same way anyone in the world does. Kalki is a great representation of that. Over 1,000 people worked on the VFX of Kalki for close to a year. We did all the big part of the second half and all the 3D work," said Namit Malhotra, promoter of Prime Focus .
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The crowd the audience witnessed in the fight scenes in the climax of Kalki was all generated digitally, along with digital doubles of the main characters. Actor Prabhas' futuristic vehicle called Bujji was nothing short of a lead character in the film and its digital version featured in most of the shots. However, the VFX artistes were impressed by the actual model of the car, designed by Mahindra Research Valley and JayemAutomotives Coimbatore, which made a fully functional and drivable vehicle.
Films like Kalki are setting new standards in visual effects in Indian cinema.
VFX powering Indian films
"When you are mounting such a film (Kalki), you got to be able to back it up with resources. So, for such films, 20-30 percent of the total budget is for VFX. Another example is Munjya, a massive hit. We did the VFX. The hero or the most expensive part was the character (an eerie and mischievous ghost) that we built. It (VFX) would be 50 percent of the total budget. It all depends on the type of project. The percentage of film budget towards VFX is growing rapidly (in Indian movies). Whether it is Munjya or Kalki, these films are a testament that the Indian audience is asking for such spectacles on the big screen," Malhotra said.
Kalki is estimated to have been made on a big budget of Rs 600 crore.
Unlike Kalki, Munjya is not headlined by popular stars and had a big budget. Its story and visual effects led to the film emerging as the fifth highest-grossing Hindi film of 2024. Munjya's Rs 123 crore worldwide earnings pumped oxygen into the bleeding Hindi box office, the share of which has dropped to 35 percent from 41 percent in Q1 FY25.
Makers of the horror comedy Munjya, which turned out to be a sleeper hit, noted in interviews to news publications that they spent half of the total estimated budget of Rs 30 crore on VFX.
Indian films drive business
It is this focus on VFX in Indian projects that kept Prime Focus alive and kicking in FY24 when the Writers and Actors strike crippled Hollywood.
"Last year was a pretty weak year because of strikes in Hollywood. As a company, we had more work from India, and last year, India’s contribution was much higher. But that was because Hollywood was at an unpredictable low. But there is no doubt that Indian films are moving towards big screen spectacles with more contribution of VFX in the development of those stories," the promoter said.
Indian films contribute 5-10 percent of the Mumbai-based company’s business and it expects this share to go up to 20 percent in the next 3-5 years.
The overall VFX segment in India grew despite a global slowdown in demand with revenues to the tune of Rs 5,400 crore in 2023, up from Rs 5,000 crore in 2022. The VFX industry in India is estimated to touch a revenue of Rs 6,300 crore by 2024.
Malhotra believes that it is only a matter of time when the Indian market will contribute 50 percent to the company's total business.
"We (India) make more movies than the West. Comparison by value is not fair, so in other metrics like number of VFX shots, I think India would be bigger in the coming years," he said.
In FY24, little to no new projects were commissioned in Hollywood due to the strikes.
"Work went on in whatever was in production, like Oppenheimer and Dune, and some of the big TV shows but new production slowed down. India helped in picking up the capacity that we had available through the year," said Malhotra, who also noted that talent in India's VFX industry is getting better because today it will be hard to find a big Hollywood film without Indian names in it.
Power of AI
To finance its own production as well as to fuel its investments in technology, Prime Focus recently raised $200 million.
One big project under production is Ramayana, touted as the most expensive film with a budget of over Rs 800 crore for the first part of the franchise.
"It is a massive undertaking and will be the largest project under production in the world because it is two films, and in terms of its scale and complexity, it is big. It is our (Indian) story that we want to show the world," he said.
Indian VFX firm Prime Focus' subsidiary DNEG raises $200 mn at $2 billion valuation
"We are a technology company and the capital is to leverage next-generation tech tools and the power of AI (artificial intelligence). We are defining Brahma as a photo real CGI (Computer-generated imagery) division. We have been one of the most Oscar-winning companies because of the photo real or near-to-life quality of visuals that we create and what we want to do with the power of AI," Malhotra said.
The company had plans to raise $500 million and even to list DNEG on Nasdaq, but things took a different route, the promoter said.
No Nasdaq listing
"We are conscious of not diluting too much too soon. But with the right partners, we will keep the doors open for raising more capital. We had to shelve our Nasdaq listing plan after the Russia-Ukraine war started because the market was tumultuous at that time. We are not pursuing that option. We don't need to raise any more capital and no real need to do another listing," he said.
Listed on Indian exchanges, Prime Focus posted a profit of Rs 488.49 crore in FY24 versus Rs 194.49 crore profit in FY23.
Hoping FY25 to be better with business back to normal in Hollywood with strikes settling down, the company is busy working on its upcoming projects, including Mickey 17, That Christmas, Eden, Ramayana, The Gorge, The Cat In The Hat, Animal Friends, and The Angry Birds Movie 3.
