Indiantelevision.com Team

(8 May 2006 7:00 pm)

MUMBAI: After having worked with the recent blockbuster movie Rang De Basanti, Visual Computing Labs, a division of Tata Elxsi is now back with a thunder giving special effects in the latest 'Thums Up' television commercial. The commercial has used some of the latest and most modern technological support in Indian advertising.

Visual Computing Labs (VCL), Tata Elxsi head marketing Bhaskar Dutt said, "Working for the Thums up ad was yet another challenge for us. The effects had to communicate the mystical eternal promise of the brand (Thunder in a bottle). The clouds depicted in the commercial are CGI (Computer Graphic Images), as are the lightning flashes, sparks, flames etc. The atmospherics are also generated. Our VCL team did all of the CGI in a matter of two weeks."

"Placing the character on the lighthouse was the most challenging exercise; the top of the lighthouse was 3D. Glass shattering from the lighthouse when the lightning strikes is also live action mixed with 3D," he added.

Tools such as Alias, Maya, Digital Fusion, Shake and Discreet Flame were used to render the highly believable graphic sequences.

VCL creative director Pankaj Khandpur said, "The biggest challenge was the sense of increasing the 'storm' through the duration of the film. Increasing the intensity of the storm/clouds, in a consistent and proportionate manner, so as to create an environmental 'build-up' was a challenge, as multiple 'thunder clouds' were being created simultaneously."

Shot by an international crew (led by Equinox' Ram Madhwani), the commercial begins with the actor discovering that his bottle of Thums Up is empty. What follows is a captivating never-seen-before chase. The commercial, which went on air recently has Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar sporting a dynamic, cool look complete with long hair. This mega scale film shot in Cape Town and Mumbai is a dramatic encapsulation of the brand's inspiration 'Taste The Thunder'.