More real than virtual

Nonika Singh

Grudge him his National award or not, there is no denying that the pioneering filmmaker S. S. Rajamouli has taken visual effects in Indian filmmaking to another level. And we are not just talking about his spectacular visuals in Bahubali alone.

At the 47th edition of the International Film Festival of India, Goa, if films from 88 countries such as The Throne, Daughter and Tamara grabbed eyeballs so did this small booth set up by Rajamouli production house. It offered a 55-second promo of The Sword of Bahubali, an eight-minute virtual reality film, which will be out next year. As hundreds queued up each day for an out-of-the-world experience, they were glued to the sight of a mammoth statue falling, stones whizzing past, earth shaking, in short gravity-defying action.

Welcome to the new world of virtual reality, or to put it simply a 360 degree experience compared to which all else, even the magnum opus Bahubali, pales. Move in any direction, crane your neck whichever way, and an action filled visual greets you.

No wonder music maestro AR Rahman could not stop extolling about it, and even showcased his latest live Vande Mataram Live-in-VR experience at the virtual reality lounge bar at the NFDC’s Film Bazaar.

A master of many VR films, Michel Reilhac, who curated the VR side bar at the Cannes Film Festival this year, clears many misconceptions about this new reality.

To begin with, the viewer is no longer a spectator but a participant, at the centre of it all. Since VR breaks the fourth wall between the film and the spectator, the rules of the game change enormously rather undergo the same 360 degree transformation that it offers. The maker needs to create not just one centre of interest but many scenes simultaneously. Michel deems, “Makers have to think in terms of spheres not a rectangular frame. A number of cameras have to be in place from two to 30. However, if the aim is merely to create a visual gimmick, then you will soon lose the viewer. Indeed, the content has to be the king in VR too.”

Is virtual reality, then, the new name and game of entertainment? Yes, and a resounding one at that. If the attention it is drawing has to be believed, if the all-encompassing experience that it offers is anything to go by, then VR is where new rules of entertainment are being written.

Right now epithets to describe the experience are endless. Immersive, mind-blowing and incredible, you can choose your poison. Indeed, the dangers of VR viewing can’t be discounted. Surely, there is a flipside that could be detrimental and have far-reaching implications. If cinema comes replete with the power to suspend disbelief, here the makers could not only cast the magic spell but hypnotise and hallucination never helped anybody. Imagine what a horror flick in this format could do to a weak-hearted. Besides, it alienates the viewer from others. Unlike watching a film in a cinema hall, VR viewing is a lonely process. Besides, means of making it accessible are so far limited, and rather unwieldy. The cumbersome equipment currently strapped to one’s head makes the joy of viewing rather arduous and has to be as of now limited to short film format.

However, Michel dismisses any such notion. World’s first full-length virtual reality movie spanning 90 minutes about the life of Christ titled Jesus VR: The Story of Christ, is expected to be released coming Christmas. The 40-minute cut was shown at the Venice Film Festival this year. In India, makers like Sudhir Mishra might feel the need to fully understand the pros and cons before committing themselves to this new technology. However, Rajamouli has not only made the first move but also promises more to come. It isn’t as if it’s an easy game for the makers. You need a technology partner.

Logistics involved are huge. To reach out to viewers Rajamouli’s production house intends to set up booths across multiplexes all across India and will need both technology and space partner. But then, technology of VR itself is expected to cross many more frontiers. Soon the headgear might just become a simple pair of glasses and interactive VR film is almost a certainty. Besides, as VR viewing might even become a commonly shared experience, more and more filmmakers will find this latest innovation hard to resist. The viewers anyway seem already smitten.

Not entirely unexpected feels Michel, “for we humans want to be at the centre of the universe.” Yet VR is being hailed as the ultimate empathy machine.

By putting the viewer right there, it can generate an emotional response unparalleled. But therein also lies the danger of manipulation. Director Steven Spielberg, the master of spectacle, however feels that VR could be a dangerous tool not just in the hands of makers but also viewers who could steer the narrative and focus on things they want to dwell upon.

And the questions that also pop up here are whether it will make cinema halls and censorship redundant. Michel, whose VR film Viens is rather sexually explicit, however, states, “As of now, censorship rules remain and my film, too, is not freely available. Moreover, VR doesn’t exactly pose a threat to cinema halls or existing ways of entertainment. Just as books remain, conventional ways of cinematic narrative too are irreplaceable.”

Skeptics might take a while before submitting themselves to what many feel is an oxymoron at least in its nomenclature virtual and real. Whether, it completely sweeps away the world of entertainment or makes inroads slow and steady remains to be seen. But VR that could become an $80 billion industry by 2025 is driven primarily by gaming and entertainment. Clearly, the future of VR films closer home will be far more than the swivel of the Sword of Bahubali.