VFX Studios Making Huge Profits

Vfx studios beautify films with the technology. Be it an action, fantasy, and epic entertainer, they give an extravagant feel to movie lovers on the silver screen.

Of late Vfx Studios have been making huge profits. The films like Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy, Sarileru Neekevvaru, Ala Vaikunthapurramloo, and Mahanati depended on Vfx for a fascinating experience. Many more upcoming entertainers like Nishabdham are also depending on Vfx.

With the heavy restrictions imposed on film shootings due to COVID 19, the reliance of the producers on Vfx increased. This is resulting in Vfx studios making huge profits. Director Teja says over-dependence on Vfx is increasing film budgets. He said producer should sell his house if a director wants 15 minutes Vfx in the film. He said Vfx Studios charge 800-1200 per frame and with 24 frames making one second of the film, one can imagine the costs if the Vfx runs into minutes and hours.

He says coronavirus restrictions now increased filmmakers’ woes as every scene must be shot with dancers and junior artistes in masks. He says Vfx studios will make huge money to remove the masks digitally.

Producer Anil Sunkara says that Vfx brought down the costs of the reshoots and made filmmaking easier but the Vfx budget proportions increased exponentially. He says it will go up to Rs 1-4crs for a star centric film and could be 40 lakhs for a small movie.

He said at present only big producers can afford Vfx. He says Vfx usage will cut travel costs of going to original locales and also as it allows digital cleaning. It prevents expensive retakes and helps in the recreation of new locations.

The makers of Baahubali spent a whopping Rs 20-40crs on Vfx. Independent Vfx supervisor who worked for more than 100 films including Ala Vaikunthapurramloo and Sarileru Neekevvaru differs that Vfx increases the film budget astronomically.

He points out that Vfx budgets in Telugu films are just 2-3% for a Rs 100crs film while in Hollywood it is around 15-20 %. He says Baahubali and 2.0 are exceptions and others work on stipulated budgets. He says Vfx usage cut down the budgets by creating extravagant sets and place actors in the exotic foreign locations with just 20% cost as otherwise, they could have incurred spending onboarding, travel and other expenses.

He said earlier few Vfx studios used pirated software but now everyone is using original software and this is more than the manpower. He says they are facing competition from Hollywood and Bollywood studios and so they have to pay extra to hire the best brains which are increasing the cost of the producer.

He added even Vfx Studios are passing through the tough times as one-month lockdown is enough to bring down profits due to high maintenance costs and hefty salaries to the employees. He said even top Hollywood Vfx Company Technicolor filed bankruptcy.