An epic three-hour action film about Indian revolutionaries in the 1920s, SS Rajamouli’s “RRR” is one of the biggest hits of the year. The musical and raucously entertaining film sits near the top of the highest-grossing films in India and has also grossed millions in the US and after a snub by India’s film board for the Best category. International Feature at the Oscars, “RRR” is making a serious run in the main Oscar categories, including film and director. (Rajamouli recently won the New York Film Critics Circle award for best director.)
And it’s also touted in the category of achievement in visual effects, perhaps the most impressive and overwhelming of the film’s many technical efforts. More than 70 percent of the film includes some form of effects component, amounting to a staggering 2,800 takes. These include backgrounds and close-ups, large and small scale miniatures, and a staggering number of CGI animals, from innocent birds in the sky to a wild tiger in the jungle.
Even before the film begins, there is a disclaimer in the opening credits, which explains that “No animals or birds were harmed during the making of the film. Horses, oxen, birds, tigers, wolves, bears, leopards, deer, fish and snakes shown in the film, all generated by computer.
TheWrap spoke with VFX Lead V. Srinivas Mohan and VFX Supervisors Pete Draper and Daniel French about the incredible challenge of creating so much realistic wildlife for the film.
“There were 18 different visual effects studios from around the world that worked on the movie,” Mohan said. “The animals had to be believable, so we looked at other movies where the animal looks realistic while sitting down, but there’s a little awkwardness in its movement. When you look at the actual movement of a real animal, it looks like it was done without any guidance. (Rajamouli) told us that he wanted all the animation and placement of the animals in the scene to be completed before filming, so that he would give the crew a guide in terms of how the actors would act. The cinematographer could see the computer generated animal on his monitor.”
Draper noted that there is at least one shot where two real horses appear on screen, but good luck trying to tell them apart from the CGI horses in the same scene.
“He’s in the big mayhem scene with the animals,” he said of a startling action sequence in which zoo animals are unleashed on the crowd. “Two royal horses pulled the burning carriage, but two more were added, one on each side, to make it appear as if they were pulling four horses. And you would never notice the fact that two are digital horses. If you freeze it, you can challenge anyone to choose the live horses from the digital horses.”
Draper continued: “It is a testament that (Rajamouli) understands all crafts. He puts his mind on every aspect of it. As for visual effects, it’s one more tool in his arsenal. It’s not a case of ‘OK, do I need to do this with visual effects?’ There are many effects, even with the animals, that were achieved on camera through miniatures or physical props.”
One such example, according to French, was a wild fight scene set on a bridge, in which a fake horse on rails was used during production. “There was a real horse there and these actors do their own stunts,” Draper said. “But in one case there was a moment when the royal horse could be in danger, because it was asked to stop just short of the edge of the bridge. So we made a CG horse. But the amount of prep work was incredible: there was a dummy horse on rails, the same height as the real horse, and we removed it and replaced it with a computer-generated horse.”
He added: “It would look so much faker if it hadn’t been for all the preparation. Most VFX supervisors would say, ‘Let’s do the actors and animals as a CG replacement because that’s easier.’ So you don’t have to do all these platforms and stuff. But (Rajamouli) knows the limitations of CG and tries to add all these elements that bring as much reality as possible.”
That philosophy was never more true than in the phenomenal tiger attack that occurs at the beginning of the story.
“Before the shooting started, we went to the zoo and filmed a tiger there,” Mohan said. “And then we took the videos and added a CG tiger next to it. Just like (copying) a painting. We did it and then we passed it to the director and asked him which was real and which was CG. It became extremely difficult, and ultimately impossible, to say.”
Draper added: “You can go into the ‘uncanny valley’ while designing real animals. So you always have to study the references, no matter what it is. Because there are so many subtle elements: for example, determining how light falls from something and changes with distances. If you try to imagine what something looks like, you will be wrong. Because you’ve missed some strange and unnatural nuance. It’s all that randomness and variables that occur in life that adds an extra realism to everything.”
Even something as basic as a tiger’s mouth must be carefully designed to ensure believability. “A big cat in real life will have little nuances in the appearance of it,” Draper said. “Like when he opens his mouth, when you look in slow motion, there’s a slight tearing when the lips part, very slight and very subtle, that you don’t see in CGI unless you’re very aware of it. The nuances sell the effect.”