It is well known that many special effects companies are developing some advanced technology in India. This technology is being used by many western movies and talk is that some of this is getting towards the center stage in Hollywood. This special effect technology is related to creating realistic visual effects, sound effects and conbinations of those.
But how is this technology affecting Indian entertainment industry?
In Hindi there is a saying that can be roughly translated to mean: Don’t give a razor to a monkey. He will use it to cut his own nose and ears.
When you see Indian TV, like ZeeTV, it becomes clear that these programs are definitely made to prove the truth of the above saying. The special effects shown in Indian TV program is effective in giving headcahe to people. There is some strange logic in use of the zoom-in zoom-out color mapping, and unusual sound effects. Most people seem to find them very weird. These effects are only effective in attracting and diverting attention from the main story. In some way, they seem to be legacy of old fashioned drama performed as RamLeela in villages where emphasis was on drammatization.
So it is one thing to have people who can help in developing (special effects) technology and it is entirely different thing to use the technology to make good use of it. It is great to see that Indian technology for special effects is becoming very good and is being used in effective movies. I only hope that the producers of these TV programs, however, go back to old technology that usually was less effective in being drammatic and hence could not do so much damage to their programs.
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