Amidst ongoing debates within the film industry over spiralling budgets and compressed schedules, Creative director Sam Bhattacharjee presents a transformative vision for the future of visual effects (VFX). Introducing the Active VFX era, Bhattacharjee emphasises a shift from automation to collaboration—where technology responds dynamically to creative intent, empowering artists and streamlining workflows.
Having pioneered India’s first AI-led feature film, ‘IRaH’, his experience looks to underscore the need for smarter post-production tools. He notes, “We didn’t need faster tools. We needed smarter ones,” highlighting the industry’s opportunity to evolve beyond traditional bottlenecks.
From his UK-based studio, ‘Do It Creative, Sam has developed three integrated platforms — ‘FaceForge’, ‘DSync’, and ‘DColor App’ — designed to enhance precision, consistency, and creative continuity.
These tools are not about instant automation but about enabling filmmakers and artists to make subtle adjustments in real-time, reducing manual effort and protecting artistic choices.
Medianews4u.com caught up with Sam Bhattacharjee founder Do It Creative
Q. Could you talk about the thought process behind Active VFX?
The traditional visual effects pipeline has been far too passive. Artists often work in isolation, waiting for renders or feedback, with limited flexibility to respond to evolving creative decisions. Active VFX introduces a new generation of tools that are responsive, intelligent and collaborative.
It is a shift from tools that simply process inputs to tools that understand and respond to creative intent in real time. Active VFX allows the process to adapt around the vision, not the other way around.
Q. The aim is to shift the focus from automation to collaboration. Why is this important, and could you offer examples where collaboration has worked?
Automation speeds up delivery, but collaboration deepens storytelling. On Sikaar, we faced the challenge of de-ageing a character and subtly shifting facial performance to match a revised emotional arc. Using FaceForge, powered by our proprietary Few-Point Key Animation (FPKA) system, we were able to retain the original performance while making precise, frame-level facial refinements.
This meant we could honour the actor’s work while elevating continuity – all without reshoots. That is the essence of Active VFX: supporting human performance, not replacing it.
Q. Could you talk about the integrated platforms — FaceForge, DSync and DColor App — that aim to enhance precision, consistency and creative continuity?
All three platforms are central to our Active VFX pipeline:
• FaceForge is a face replacement and de-ageing tool developed using our proprietary Youtify and Few-Point Key Animation (FPKA) technologies. It enables directors to modify facial identity or age while preserving emotion and intent. In Sikaar, it was used to perform subtle character age transitions without impacting the actor’s core performance.
• DSync allows natural-looking multilingual lip sync using a few-shot AI approach, helping deliver emotionally accurate dubbed versions without ADR delays.
• DColor App is our machine-learning grading assistant. It understands the director’s previous look decisions and ensures consistent colour balance and tone across scenes and formats.
Together, these tools represent a new standard of precision and responsiveness. They allow the story to evolve without sacrificing continuity or control.
Q. What are the learnings from India’s first AI-led feature film, IRaH?
IRaH showed us that artificial intelligence works best when it serves the story quietly. The film explored complex themes involving a sentient archival system, but the most powerful results came from how AI supported the post-production process.
From syncing voices naturally to helping with regrading, AI allowed us to work smarter. It was not about spectacle, but about solving small creative bottlenecks that would otherwise drain time and compromise quality.
Q. How is AI impacting the film industry from scripting to production and post-production?
AI is now involved in every stage, from breaking down scripts and budgeting to post-production cleanup and visual refinement. But its most meaningful role is in post, where it helps unify colour, improve continuity, and support translation without emotional loss.
With Active VFX, AI becomes a collaborative assistant that is always learning and adjusting. It allows the creative process to remain fluid without losing control.
Active VFX empowers filmmakers and artists to make subtle, precise adjustments on the fly. How will this help take movies to the next level?
Precision and flexibility are what elevate a good film to a great one. With Active VFX, directors can make scene-level corrections in real time. Actors’ performances can be slightly adjusted without calling them back. Dialogue can be adapted across languages while preserving tone.
Instead of compromising or cutting corners, artists can now fine-tune the work at a level of detail that was previously impractical. This ensures the emotional and visual quality of the film remains intact.
Q. What are things being seen in the visual effects arena that would not have happened a few years ago?
We are now creating age modifications, emotional adjustments, and multilingual facial sync in days rather than months. Grading can be applied dynamically based on learned creative patterns. And we are building pipelines that adapt to feedback in real time, not through endless revision cycles.
These developments were simply not possible before. Tools like FaceForge and DColor have made this new way of working both affordable and reliable.
Q. There is concern about technology replacing human creativity. But can technology at the same time amplify artistic expression?
Yes, and that is the role it should play. Technology should never override vision. It should support it. When designed with intent, tools can amplify artistic decision-making, not replace it.
FaceForge, for instance, helps refine a performance rather than generate a synthetic one. DSync allows language transitions while keeping the soul of a scene. These tools extend what the artist can do, rather than narrowing the process.
Q. Could you talk about approaching the challenge of ‘Housefull 5’, where the visual effects had to stay cohesive across timelines while preserving the franchise’s comedic rhythm?
‘Housefull 5’ was a scale-heavy project involving multiple time periods and comic set pieces. For this, we relied on Unreal Engine as a core part of our workflow. It allowed us to visualise, iterate and deliver large environment builds quickly while retaining interactive control during the shoot and post.
Maintaining comedic rhythm within a VFX-heavy timeline is always a challenge. The key was in pacing. We ensured that transitions, expressions and spatial logic were kept tight. Unreal enabled a level of immediacy that helped us preserve the franchise’s distinct humour and visual identity.
Q. An upcoming film, ‘The India House’, will feature detailed yet subtle CG environments. What does this entail? What are the challenges of subtlety so that a scene does not look like a visual effect?
Subtlety is the most difficult form of VFX. In ‘The India House’, we are building period environments, mist, lighting layers and architectural textures that support the drama without standing out.
This requires control, restraint and technical finesse. Using our DColor App and real-time previews, we ensure each shot blends naturally with the live action. The audience should feel immersed in the world, not pulled out by overly synthetic visuals.
Q. Do directors like Sukumar have a firm grasp on how visual effects can advance storytelling?
We did not collaborate with Sukumar directly, but our studio contributed to specific sequences in one of his projects. What we observed was a strong awareness of how visual effects could be used as part of the narrative structure, not just for spectacle.
Directors who understand the role of VFX in supporting tone, performance and meaning are best positioned to get the most from Active VFX workflows. They treat the process as part of storytelling, which is how it should be.
