10 Best VFX works in Tamil Cinema Tamil Movie, Music Reviews and News

10 Best VFX works in Tamil Cinema

PUBLISHED DATE : 23/May/2016

10 Best VFX works in Tamil Cinema

VFX (Visual effects) help the filmmakers to get imaginary outputs, which are not possible to shoot as live-footage sequences because of impractical/risky/expensive factors involved.

Though VFX has been a part of Tamil films for a long time, mostly they are used only for the fights or song sequences. Only very few films' scripts demanded VFX works and VFX were used extensively in those films.

24 is one such film in which the VFX were utilized properly to convey director's vision. The movie revolves around a time-travelling watch and VFX (done by After STudio VFX) played a major role in showing how the protagonist changes things during time freeze sequences.

Collage of after VFX still from movie

In the recent past, many films like Baahubali and Puli also had extensive VFX due to the demand of their scripts.

Here is our list of best 10 VFX works in Tamil films, that helped to create the director's vision on screen.

1. Endhiran ( Indian Artists Computer Graphics )

Srinivas Mohan has been blazing a trail when it comes to VFX in Tamil Cinema. Endhiran had given every challenging task to him, that he would have imagined in 2010. About 75% of the film witnessed Rajinikanth and Robot together, which means almost every scene has dual role composite. This is definitely a challenging task, even in 2016. Endhiran was the first Indian film to use Doom Light Stage Scanning technology. More than 2000 VFX shots were delivered for the film. VFX team had also brought out some visually challenging scenes like Magnetizing & Demagnetizing weapons, Train chasing, running on a wall, fire rescue, Self dismantling of a Robo. Undoubtedly, Endhiran is a milestone in the Tamil cinema as far as VFX is concerned.

An after vfx picture from Endhiran

2. Baahubali ( Indian Artists Computer Graphics, Makuta)

After Shankar, Rajamouli turned out to be the successful director in utilizing VFX. His latest sensation, Baahubali received huge acclaims for the visual effects. Be it the statue, palace, mountain, bull fight, baby getting transported in the river sequence or war sequences, every frame looked real and got rave responses from the audience. The movie had over 4500 VFX shots.

Here are some snaps from the movie (Before & After of VFX)

3. Aayirathil Oruvan (Prime Focus)

Selvaraghavan's Aayirathil Oruvan was another visually marvelous film. The VFX team had to work on thousands of CG snakes, sea creatures, set extensions, touch ups, quick sand sequences, mystic rocks, environment matte paintings, lava and war sequences. The VFX team delivered 1800 VFX shots for this film.

4. Naan E (Makuta)

A man takes rebirth as a fly to kill the antagonist. The fly plans like a man and executes the revenge brilliantly. The director's vision had come out well on the screen, thanks to the VFX team.

5. Madrasapattinam (EyeQube)

Recreating Madras (Chennai) as it was during 1947 could have been a demanding task, but the film brought back Madrasapattinam live to your eyes. Central railway station, huts, old streets and the tram were beautifully and authentically recreated within a reasonable budget.

6. Mattrraan (Indian Artists Computer Graphics)

Maattrraan had similar challenges like Endhiran, but in a different way. Playing conjoined twins, Suriya had to tie along with a body double to dance and fight together with four legs and four hands. With the help of VFX team, the body double was later swapped to another Suriya's character. Also, the team had introduced motion capture technology for the first time in Tamil cinema.

Suriya, acting for the second role along with a body double on his left, with 5 cameras recording to cover all angles

7. I (2016) (Indian Artists Computer Graphics, Makuta)

Though Vikram had prosthetic make-up throughout the film, Shankar's love for VFX continued in "I" majorly through the songs. The 'Mersalayiteen' song was brilliantly shot involving amazing transformations of a girl into a bike, mobile phone and gym equipment. VFX was top-notch throughout the film in songs such as Ennodu Nee Irundhaal and Ladio. Vikram's hideout place sequence and climax train fight sequence also had effective VFX.

8. 7aum Arivu (Makuta)

AR Murugadoss' 7 Aum arivu was an experimental subject that dealt with bio war. The movie had to show present and Bodhidharman eras. VFX team did a remarkable job in Bodhidharman sequence, chasing sequence and circus sequence .

9. Vishwaroopam (Red Chilies, VFX supervisor: N Madhusudhanan )

Kamal Haasan had brought New York and Afghanistan right before our eyes in Vishwaroopam carefully without a flaw. The detailed work of VFX made audience believe that they were looking at scenes that were shot abroad and not in a local set.

10. Puli (Phantom FX, Raketa Film)

Despite its failure at the box office, Chimbudevan's Puli should be credited for the efforts put by the VFX team. The movie had shown an imaginative world including palace, creatures like large tortoise, one-eyed man and lilliputians, which looked real.

Special Mentions

Sivaji : Changing the colour of one's skin might sound crazy but Shankar had changed the colour of Rajinikanth from black to white in Sivaji. The movie also had other notable VFX sequences such as slow-motion bullet sequence towards Rajinikanth, grandeur songs and few stunt scenes.