3D is medium of the future, feels Bollywood

Mumbai, Feb 9, (PTI):

With several Hollywood biggies undergoing full 3D conversion in India, the country is being considered as a hub for the conversion from 2D (normal/reeling) shooting to 3D and is on the international radar for the same.

Even though Bollywood too is seriously thinking about 3D projects for their releases in the coming future, no conversions have been done as yet. Vikram Bhatt's soon to be released 'Haunted' will be India's first stereoscopic 3D film while Shirish Kunder has announced that his Akshay Kumar-Sonakshi Sinha starrer 'Joker' will be in 3D. Shirish told PTI that 3D is the medium of the future.

"The next big transformation after black and white to colour. 3D gives viewers the experience that they are actually in the space where the film is taking place and it also gives filmmakers an opportunity to curb piracy," he felt.

Vikram said a 3D film would be 40 per cent more than the normal budget of a film. After James Cameron's 'Avatar', Prime Focus completed the full 3D conversion of the recently released 'Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader' with the help of their proprietary software View D. The film is the industry's biggest full 3D conversion film to date.

In addition, Prime Focus has also completed the work for Clash of the Titans, Cats & Dogs and My Soul to Take for 3D conversion. Today, a viewer needs a perfect balance in the technology and the storyline rather than pure entertainment. 3D is considered to add a lot of realness to the whole storyline and make the entire effort look extremely real, says Merzin Tavaria, co-founder and Chief Creative Director, Prime Focus.

Tavaria said a film can be shot on 3D using stereoscopic cameras but it is expensive and time consuming. "When a director shoots in 3D, his focus is forced to shift from the creative part of the film to the technical side of it. In 3D, each shot needs to be checked for its 3D depth and decisions are being taken for every shot for proper line up of camera lense. This is time consuming and takes the spontaneity out of it," he added.

On the other hand, 3D conversion gives the filmmaker luxury and tools to sit in the comfort of the studio and make decisions watching the whole film.

"Here, a filmmaker is able to interactively work on the sequences and take decisions while watching shots in the edit room. He is able to take creative approach rather than technical one and see each of his shots blend into the previous and next ones seamlessly," he added. However, Vikram Bhatt does not agree and believes conversion is a con and not real 3D. "Real 3D is one of infinite depth," he added.

"3D is now a much stable platform than before. The idea came to us in our effort to do something new and innovative all the time. He admitted that shooting in 3D is more expensive than conversion," he added.

Shirish Kunder, whose Joker will go on floors from February 14 says he will do a mix of conversion and 3D shooting. "There are no experienced stereograhers in the country. Hence, the shooting is time consuming and there is no room for errors. In case of film with big stars, 2D to 3D conversion is the best option as they will not waste their time on the sets," he said adding that a Tom Cruise film will not be 2D to 3D conversion.

JOKER to be first 3D Bollywood film

Shirish Kunder the multi-talented husband of director Farah Khan has confirmed that they are embarking on making the first Bollywood film in 3D, called JOKER. The lead male role for the film will be played by Bollywood action star, Akshay Kumar.

Kunder confirmed on his Twitter account that he is making the film, he tweeted, ‘Yes we are making JOKER in 3D.’

The film is Kunder’s dream project and he has delayed it until he felt the time was right to start the project. Most people think that JOKER is going to be a superhero movie but it’s not the case. Originally it was scripted to be a superhero movie but Shrish said he has changed the concept.

Speaking about the changes to the film, Shrish said in a recent interview: “I have changed it and reworked the entire story of the film. The new Joker, since I had the rights to the name, will be like any other commercial Bollywood pot boiler, but one thing for sure is that Joker will differ in terms of its innovation, unlike anything what we have seen till date.”

Shirish has been inspired by the success of James Cameron’s Hollywood blockbuster ‘Avatar’ and saw lots of scope to utilise the techniques for the visuals of JOKER in terms of live animation.

However, Shirish is not looking at using CGI (computer generated imagery) for the film as used in Avatar. The way Avatar was made is not fully applicable to Kunder’s project. “Using the camera James Cameron developed will not be a suitable option. For my film, we will use the available stereoscopic camera since with that we can shoot the entire project in 3D, like shooting a normal film.” he said talking about the camera options.

When Kunder was asked about why he chose to do a movie specifically in 3D, he replied, “Coming to the whole 3D aspect of the film, if we look back it was always there, but seldom used for the sole reason that we didn’t have the right technology to screen and view the film.”