India UK Tech Summit 2016 throws light on importance of innovation, technology in creative arts

The recently concluded India UK Tech Summit in New Delhi, which explored various facets of the future of India-UK collaboration, saw a focused discussion on 'Innovation and Technology in Creative Arts'.

The highly interactive session witnessed the active participation of thought leaders in the space of creative arts, driving an important discussion on how Indian talent in this space can do justice to the creativity they possess only by engaging in the right kind of technological training.

Merzin Tavaria, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Director of Prime Focus is of the opinion that while the application of creative technology has come a long way in India, there is still room for improvement when compared to the magnitude of VFX heavy work being executed in the West.

"The economics are different in Hollywood and Bollywood. While the VFX spend purse in Bollywood is increasing, it needs to be complemented with a technologically heavy task force that can do justice to the creativity that is oozing in this space. Only then will scripts start being written keeping VFX in mind, rather the other way round, where VFX is brought in for an action based scene or when there is a post production challenge that needs to be solved," said Merzin.

He further said, "The highest grossing films in the billion dollar club globally are all visual effects films. This may not necessarily be the case in the Indian scenario because the application of VFX to the overall scheme of a film is still limited to it being used as a story telling tool. While the creativity and the workforce are present in abundance, they need to be groomed in the right away to realize their full potential."

Prime Focus is a homegrown company that has marked its presence globally and is focused on providing the knowledge and technology required to boost the skill sets in the industry.

A significant move in that regard was the merger of its creative services division with Oscar winning VFX studio Double Negative in 2014, which has provided cutting edge work on films such as 'Star Trek Beyond', 'Batman v Superman', 'Spectre' and 'Interstellar'.