Warangal lad makes animation movie using motion capture technology
Big hits like Avtaar have been made on this movie fully made in Telangana; Tenali Ramakrishna's life story is adpated for the project
Hyderabad: ‘Dhira’ is one of the popular animation movies on the Amazon Prime Video. Though initially it was destined to be a theatrical release, it has been released on the OTT platform. And, it is being received well.
The movie, which is available in ten languages as of now, is based on the Vijayanagra empire and its scholar Tenali Ramakrishna. The script apart, it boasts of using motion capture technology, the same technology that has been used in Hollywood blockbuster hits like the Avataar, for a realistic effect.
“This is the first time that motion capture technology is used for a production that is totally handled in Telangana,” said Arun Kumar Rapolu, the founder of A Theorem Studio and the director of the film Dhira. His team of about 70 people worked on the project (mostly Blender) for about three-and-half years.
“We can say that Dhira is not just another animation film. The visual experience it offers matches with the best in the world. We used the motion capture technology to capture the real motion using multiple sensors. This is later applied to the animations. We got 12 big stars dub for the Dhira in 12 languages,” said Rapulu, who hails from Warangal.
The voice over in Hindi is given by VivekOberoi, VijaySethupathi (Tamil), Bellamkonda Sai Sreenivas (Telugu) and Jeet in Bengali among others.
A Theorem now operates from Hyderabad and has plans to start operations to Warangal as well shortly, he said. A Theorem Studio handles projects on 2D concepts, 3D, colour grading, motion capture, composting, AV recording and editing among others that aid in improving the experience for the viewers and customers.
Rapolu, a trained hand in graphics and animation, worked with many animation studies. He also studied the craft of making films. “It has been my dream to make a movie. Dhira is a blend of animation and film making skills,” he said adding that many animation and action films sowed the seeds for his venture.
Before setting up A Theorem Studio, Rapolu said he worked as Motion Capture Team lead in Media Mandi International and also worked for House OF Moves (HOM), Electronics Arts (EA), EIDOS, UBI Soft, Perspective Studios. This laid the foundation for his new role as film director, producer and screen writer. He is inspired by the works of SS Rajamouli and Super Star Rajinikanth.
“Indian animation is thriving and new content is getting added regularly. The treatment and execution is getting refined with use of new technologies,” he said adding that Dhira is the biggest pan India Motion Capture (MoCap) film. Rapolu and his team met the IT Minister KT Rama Rao to present the poster of the movie that is made in Telangana.
“I wanted to create Telugu content. We decided on Tenali Ramakrishna, who is a perfect blend of brilliance and humour. I wanted to convey that ‘Buddhishali’ is powerful than ‘Balashali’. Also, the Vijayanagara empire stands for grandeur,” he said adding that the team researched and visited places including Hampi, read novels, saw old movies on the subject for evolving the concept.
KTR congratulates startup promoters
Four youngsters from Telangana who did not want to follow the beaten path, set out to discover their own destiny. They pursued their ideas and ended up running four different start-ups which are showing promising results. The four got a pat on their back when they met IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao here on Wednesday.
The Minister congratulated Arun Kumar Rapolu from Warangal who directed Dhira, the pan Indian biggest motion capture film completely made in State. Rama Rao also congratulated Pallav Bajjuri (Co-Founder and CEO of Kahaniya), Srinivas Madhavam (Founder and CEO of Exprs) and Sricharan Lakkaraju (Founder of stuMagz) for running their start-ups successfully in their respective sectors. Rama Rao also unveiled DAD, a book authored by Lakkaraju.
While Kahaniya is a tech platform enabling vernacular storytellers by giving them an audience with readers, publishers, filmmakers and brands, stuMagz is a student discovery platform which enables companies to discover the right student talents. Till date, stuMagz has a reach of over three lakh students across more than 300 colleges. Exprs is a nano distribution network established across high demand clusters such as gated communities, tech parks, universities and colonies. The company has access to more than a million users and has fulfilled more than two million deliveries.
Thanking the Telangana government especially the Minister for support to start-ups through initiatives like T-Hub, We-Hub, T-Works and Telangana Innovation Cell, the start-ups’ founders said the State had the best start-up ecosystem in the country.
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