This Digital Intermediate service made 'Baar Baar Dekho' time travel jazzy and vivacious

'Baar Baar Dekho' is the new comedy drama from debutante director Nitya Mehra who has previously worked under filmmakers as varied as Mira Nair, Ang Lee and Farhan Akhtar.

The movie tells the story of Jai (Sidharth Malhotra), a mathematical genius who, after developing cold feet on the eve of his wedding, finds himself travelling through time to watch the key moments of his relationship with Dia (Katrina Kaif) unfold before him. Prime Focus World is pleased to have provided Digital Intermediate (DI) services for the 140 minute film.

During production Director of Photography Ravi K. Chandran started grabbing images from the footage to send across to Prime Focus Colorist Ashirwad Hadkar, so that Ravi and Ashirwad could begin discussing the look and feel of the film.

The filmmakers wanted the movie to have a very jazzy, vivacious and colourful look, for which a lot of colour lights and gels were used during the principal photography, and following a preview screening at Excel Entertainment, Ashirwad, Ravi and director Nitya Mehra discussed at length the desired look and feel of the film to set the brief for the DI.

Talking about her experience of working with Prime Focus, director Nitya Mehra said, "I had a great time working with Prime Focus. I feel Ashirwad is really talented and the fact that both he and Ravi were so much in sync helped us a lot during the grading process. The Prime Focus DI facility is top notch and the team itself is extremely organised, which really made me feel like we were in good hands."

For a story spanning several years, every phase of the characters' lives was treated differently. A softer, de-saturated look was used for the childhood and teenage years, while a more realistic skin tone was maintained as the characters entered adulthood, leading up to their marriage. It was essential that the grade reflect the exact mood of each of the sequences, and every song was treated uniquely.

For instance, for 'Sau Aasmaan', which is a honeymoon song, the DI team set a refreshing, upbeat and colourful tone that corresponded perfectly with the theme of the song. On the other hand, the chartbusting pop track 'Kala Chashma' was treated with bright and flashy hues. For the soulful 'Teri Khair Mangdi' a greyish brown treatment was decided. Shot in heavy coloured lighting, the marriage song 'Nachde Ne Saare' was treated with a yellowish warm grade.

Discussing the project, Prime Focus colourist Ashirwad Hadkar said, "We wanted the film to look very picturesque and vibrant while keeping the colours as real as possible. Being experts, both Nitya and Ravi chose colours very smartly during the production of the film. The colours had the right density, composition and balance, which made the grading process a lot easier. "

The major challenge faced by the team was to match the graded frames throughout the past and future events of the film. With characters wearing prosthetics to look older in the later part of the film, the DI team ensured a consistency in the skin tone by adjusting the contrast and saturation, and softening excessive wrinkles, to make them appear as real as possible.

"Prosthetics is part-lighting, part-VFX and part-grading and it was essential that all these elements work in tandem to make the characters look naturally old," explains Nitya Mehra. "The grading in this respect was crucial to soften and blend the prosthetics with the natural skin tone."

Produced by prominent filmmakers Farhan Akhtar and Karan Johar under their respective home banners - Excel Entertainment and Dharma Productions, Baar Baar Dekho has already hit the theatres September 9, 2016.