India To e World
October 2011
Two of India’s crowning jewels, Prasad Labs & Real Images are in Chennai and are thriving with the amazing projects that they create not only for the Indian film industry, but projects that comes from far and beyond the borders. Anupriya D
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The Tamil film industry today is one of the largest industries in the world. Big budgets and even bigger stars! The scale at which movies are produced down south is certainly unmatched to any regional language film in the country. Pioneers like Mani Ratnam, Rahman or the most recent Academy Award winner Resul Pookuty are highly skilled individuals, all from down south, have definitely etched their names in the pages of history. The immense talent and work culture in the Tamil film industry is something that is very well known and appreciated across the globe. As a result outsourcing has taken a complete new meaning in relation to the film industry and film technology. Technologically sound, this industry now has travelled shores
and made their presence felt in a global arena in media technology as well as media services. S. Sivaraman, General Manager – Operations, Prasad Film Laboratories- Chennai, tells us how everything today is locally available in the south. “Prasad is perhaps the biggest in India in post production services. It offers various services all under one roof, right from processing lab services, recording studios, digital visual effects services, tele cine services, editing, sound recording and mixing, etc. Our labs are certified by Kodak; therefore it offers world class services and quality standards. Our fully air-conditioned shooting floors fully enable directors to erect huge sets. Director Shankar shoots most of his films here. ‘Enthiran’ being one of the most
legendary film being shot at our premises.” Not only the Tamil film industry reaps its benefits, but today film makers from all over the world look at outsourcing the media services to the various film labs in South India. Reasons could be many - It is definitely economically compared to many other countries and at the same time there isn’t compromise with quality. Sivaraman further explains, “At one point of time, Prasad was where most Bollywood films’ post production took place. But after Adlabs came into the picture, it took a back seat because sending film negatives to the South is a risky affair, considering the films might get damaged in the process. From that point they prefer to work there. Even today the cream of the