Bengaluru's creativity glitters in Hollywood movies

Did you like the spectacular scene of little Mowgli extracting honey for Baloo, or the other elaborate unnerving night sequences where this little boy runs through the jungle with a flaming torch?

If these sequences of the American fantasy adventure film, ‘The Jungle Book’ had you awestruck, there is another reason to cheer about: around 300 artists worked for many of these sequences over a span of one year at Whitefield, the eastern suburb in Bengaluru.

This film is not the only one. The list of world-class cinema with Bengaluru connection will surprise you. From the computer-animated action comedy martial arts film ‘Kung Fu Panda-3’, ‘Godzilla’ to science-fiction ‘Martians’ and the superheroes like X-Men, Batman vs Superman, these unstoppable films at the box office should make Bengaluru proud.

The firms behind these world-class works are The Moving Picture Company (MPC) and DreamWorks Animation, both global companies with their presence in Bengaluru. Vamsi Ayyagari, General Manager of MPC Bangalore, a visual-effects studio, said they get a dozen of similar projects each year. “We are the creative partners in the process and work in collaboration with our four sister studios. And, ‘Jungle Book’ is one of the many movies we worked on,” he said adding that Bengaluru was a sort of favoured place to work with for its talent base.

The firm is working on projects such as ‘Fantastic Beasts’, ‘Suicide Squad’, ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’, ‘Independence Day’, ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘Tarzan’.

Similarly, Damien de Foberville, General Manager of DreamWorks Dedicated Unit, said they contribute partial or full sequences of animation features. “We are working on ‘Trolls’, slated for release in November this year,” he said. Besides, the firm has worked for the success of ‘Madagascar 3’, ‘Rise of the Guardians’, ‘Mr. Peabody & Sherman’ as well as ‘Penguins of Madagascar’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’.

Adi Sayan, secretary, Association of Bangalore Animation Industry said Bengaluru is emerging as a hub for world-class cinema. There are 7 to 10 companies related to global entertainment in Bengaluru that includes animation films, special-effects films and gaming. “Bengaluru contributes to the making of at least five Hollywood movies every year. Special effects for live action films and high-end TV serials like Penguins of Madagascar are done.”

Sayan mentioned that the city has come up in a big way in the last three years, while only Mumbai and Hyderabad were top players. “This is evident with project profiles Bengaluru gets and the number of recruits. There are 2,500 artists here”, he said. While the design and pre-production comes from the US, which includes stories, shooting, visual art, concept and audio recording, post-production gets done here. For animation movies, filming happens somewhere else and visual effects work is done here, he said.