Abhishek's Drona will stun you

It was like having your pie in the sky and eating it too. Literally! The sea view from the 34th floor (rooftop) of the Hilton Towers was a visual delight, something that immediately sets you going for the day. Talk about visual delights, here’s good news for Hindi film buffs. Eros International announced its foray into visual effects in association with Charles Darby, the illustrious name in the field of visual effects and matte painting. In case that does not ring a bell, here's the dope: Charles is the same guy who has created the stunning visual effects for Titanic, Matrix and Harry Potter. Charles has joined hands with Eros now to launch his company EyeQube in Mumbai, with an aim to create a world-class VFX facility in India for both large scale Indian and international projects.

Eros would initially invest $5-7 million to set up the special effects studio and plans to work on about 3-4 movies a year, Chief Operating Officer Jyoti Deshpande said at the press conference.

Said Charles, "We aim at producing Indian films on a larger scale, at par with Hollywood. We are going to provide facilities and the correct approach to the filmmakers. I have met a few Bollywood directors over the past few weeks and was delighted to see they were so open to ideas."

Charles further commented on the prospects of visual. "Everything has to be woven in the context of the film. There is no reason why Indians can't do it. We don't believe in quantity, we want to do quality work. So we have decided to concentrate on doing three to four films a year." Charles is currently working on two Eros projects – Drona and Alladin.

Directed by Goldie Behl, Drona stars Abhishek Bachchan as a superhero. On the other hand Sujoy Ghosh's Aladdin and the Mystery Of The Lamp sees Riteish Deshmukh as Aladdin with Amitabh Bachchan as his genie. As Charles explains, "There is so much scope for special effects in these films, not necessarily flashy, but eye-catching which would ultimately draw the audience to the theatres. Visual treat is what makes a film in Hollywood a good grosser. The real star of a film is the film itself. Any film should be good enough to draw the audience. It is the size and scale of the film that should be able to draw the viewers and of course a good script comes as an icing to the cake."

As for the company, EyeQube will cater to the top-end visual effects in Bollywood and abroad. Charles further added, "Apart from creating the finest Indian feature and animation effects, we are building a creative powerhouse. We will be involved in every aspect of filmmaking including the aesthetics to create a high-end product a la in Hollywood! As for the investment part, one needs to invest and then only can reap benefits."