14.11.2009
Prime Focus recreates 26/7 Mumbai floods in Tum Mile with over 300 VFX shots and DI



Prime focus, a global visual entertainment services group delivers yet another visual treat for Mukesh Bhatt’s upcoming movie titled ‘Tum Mile’ with the VFX team led under the creative guidance of Merzin Tavaria, Chief Creative Director and the Digital Intermediate team led by Rohan Desai, DI head and Chief Colorist , Prime Focus.

The VFX team of 79 creative professionals was led by VFX Supervisor Ritesh (Ricky) Aggarwal and the look and mood of the film was set by ace Colorist, Aashirwad Hadkar.

What we have created in Tum Mile is exceptional, said Merzin Tavaria. “Depicting events from the past with a see-it believability factor was a challenge for Prime Focus but we’ve successfully recreated the scenario and realistically projected it with effective live-action effects, complete CG shots, Compositing, matte painting etc”, adds Merzin.

Talking about the DI, Rohan Desai said, “Since the movie is set in the backdrop of a real incident, the client wanted the scenes to look as real as possible. In the movie, some scenes are shot in glossy and colorful locations of South Africa and the others in Mumbai with the backdrop of the torrential flood. As always, extreme change in conditions and locations was a challenge to the DI team. The team had to merge each and every scene to ensure continuity.”

Tum Mile is a love story set against the backdrop of the infamous July 2005 Mumbai floods. Directed by Kunal Deshmukh of Jannat fame, the film stars Emraan Hashmi and Soha Ali Khan in lead roles.

Some of the major scenes in movie were:

Bandra Reclamation Shot
This is one of the main shots in the movie, where the whole Mahim-Bandra Reclaimation stretch is projected. Prime Focus created the whole stretch from Mahim to Bandra reclamation with help of different techniques.  This shot was extremely complicated and had to go under a lot of planning before it went into execution. The prime Focus Team worked through a number of iterations on the concepts and mood sets on this. The team went to the Bandra flyover and took high resolution images of the bridge and the surrounding areas so they could be recreated in complete CG. This shot has a mix of 3D projection, 3D modeled elements, Particle Rain from 3D and particle rain generated in Fusion. The cloud were a combination of Matte painting clouds tracked in the composite and 3D generated clouds.  The shot has over 1500 layers generated in 3D and Matte painting. Different elements like cars, buildings, bridges were created. Using the 3D software- Maya, all these elements were modeled, lit and textured. Multiple passes for each layer were provided so that the compositor could have complete control over the shot. The sea in this shot is entirely 3D generated & rain is a mix of 3D particles and particles from fusion. CG People were added to give life to the shot. Details like floating objects were all created and composited to add realism to the shot.

Water gushing shot
There is a scene where Soha and Emraan are stuck in a corridor. Suddenly a wall collapses because of the force of the water.  The water gushes in forcefully to fill the corridor, while Emraan and Soha are trying to get away. Shooting such a scene can be dangerous and expensive. This shot was carefully planned to avoid any mishaps.

This scene was shot in 2 parts. The first layer was, the water breaking the wall and gushing inside the room and the second layer was with Soha and Emraan against a chroma screen, keeping the camera locked for both the layers. Later, both the layers were composited to create one final scene which shows flood water breaking the wall, gushing in full force while the actors are trying to get away.

According to Ricky, “Some key things had to be taken care of in the composite. While compositing, the team had to get into details like creating shadows on the wall and reflections & ripples in water to make the scene look realistic. Also, the layer of water had to be doubled as the original shot lacked volume and did not look intimidating enough.  The light flicker from the water gushing layer had to be timed and composited on the actor layer for them to sit in right.”

Aerial shots
This scene is a culmination of four separate shots. The first shot is Soha stuck in her car in a flooded lane. The doors of her car are jammed and she’s trying to get out. The scene then zooms out to a higher magnification where one gets the view of the whole lane submerged in water and the last 2 are aerial shots of the whole city submerged in water. For the aerial shots, references were taken from Google earth where first the magnification of the shots were decided & hi-res detailed structures like buildings / cars / trees were generated using matte painting. To detail it further 3D rain generated in Maya was added. Finally all of this was composited using fusion, which made sure these layers sit right. People were added using the particle effects in Fusion. To make the scene look more real, Prime Focus also added ripples in water, people moving around and water was shaded to show murkier areas. As the shots went higher in magnification, layers of clouds were added as well.

Set Extensions
The film required a whole lot of set extension to be done to show the grandeur of the streets they were stuck in. All these set extensions were carefully planned and executed to show endless streets flooded. Through Matte painting these frames would be created and Composited in Fusion. Rain added in fusion using its particle system itself. Apart from the above, the movie also involved a lot of PIP [picture in picture] where images were added/ replaced on TV screens/cell phones, footages from Star News were placed in tv screens and Background Replacements.

DI
The film cuts in and out of happy, warm flashback moments of the past, mostly shot in South Africa to the darker, cold flood scenes of Mumbai.

For the flashback, the grade was set to make the visuals look colorful, happy and warm. Towards the end of each flashback transitions are made into the present day rainy and flooded Mumbai city which was made to look colder and darker to depict the reality and catastrophe of the situation. The challenge was showing this seamless transition between the past and the present without disturbing the narrative and without making it look deliberately treated, which colorists at Prime Focus effectively delivered in 28 days. The whole DI process is credited to a team of 25 people, doing back-end work and DI scanning.

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