yFX’s Sherry Bharda Invited to be an Academy Member

Yash Raj Films’ clutter-breaking visual effects division yFX has reason to celebrate as one of its' founding member, Sherry Bharda, has been invited by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to join as a member. This puts Sherry in an acclaimed group of pioneers in the field of visual effects. As a seasoned VFX expert, Sherry has worked on innumerable films in her career, including visual spectacles like Sultan, Tiger Zinda Hai, Sui Dhaaga-Made in India, Thugs of Hindostan, Uri: The Surgical Strike and Bharat. 

Over the course of the past two decades, She has steadily built up an expertise in visual effects and film technology, with many achievements to her credit. She began her career as CG artist and graphics supervisor at Western Outdoor, a premier post production studio. Here she worked on thousands of commercials and  films like Mohabbatein, Mission Kashmir and the Oscar nominated Lagaan. She also had a stellar run as Creative Supervisor at Tata Elxsi’s Visual Computing Labs for 14 years. As one of the key VFX supervisors, she has to her credit films like Rang De Basanti, the Dhoom franchise, Ek Tha Tiger, Taare Zameen Par, Jodha Akbar, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, and Neerja amongst many others. Her international visual effects projects include films like The Darkest Hour, Gulliver’s Travels, Jack the Giant Slayer and HBO’s TV show Luck. She was also the Finaling Supervisor on two Disney productions - Roadside Romeo, India’s first full-length 3D animation feature and Arjun, a 3D animated feature.                                                                             

Sherry joined yFX in 2016 as a founding member, and has gone on to do what she does best - delivering stellar VFX. With a great eye and a solid foundation in the wide gamut of disciplines encompassing this field, She and her team have gone on to receive several top industry awards for their pioneering work. They have won the President of India (National) Award thrice, and she has also been nominated at the VES (Visual Effects Society, USA) Awards for Outstanding Work in an animated feature film. That she has been invited to join the world’s most prestigious film Academy, is a duly deserved honour, as Sherry Bharda is a game changing professional and one of the key individuals who have been responsible for the growth of VFX in India.

National Award Winning Rima Das 'Bulbul Can Sing' heads to be the opening night film of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne

Rima Das has proven her mettle as an Indian director travelling with her cinema globally, earning several honours and accolades. Her most popular film, Village Rockstars was an Assamese language film which won the National Award for Best Feature Film in 2018 and was even India’s official entry from the country to the Oscars. Rima Das has since then been a leading name globally taking Indian cinema to new heights and accomplishing new feats.

Now her new feature, Bulbul Can Sing is all set to be the opening night film of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2019. The annual festival which takes place in the cultural capital of he Victorian state in Australia will be celebrating its decade long initiative to promote Indian cinema in the land down under. After a successful nine editions, for its opening night the festival will be showcasing Das’ film which showcases the stories of three teenagers who are trying to come to terms with their sexual identities while dealing with the ideals and morales of the villagers.

Rima’s Bulbul Can Sing will be officially opening the festival with a screening on 8th August. The festival will be celebrating its 10th year with the central theme of courage this year and will commence on 8th August and concluding on 17th August.

When asked Rima she said, "I love the enthusiasm and exuberance of an opening night. So excited that Bulbul Can Sing is the opening night film at Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. Special thanks to the organisers. The film has truly been special for me as a filmmaker. I’m looking forward to the Australian premiere of the film and interacting with the audiences there and having  a conversation with them on cinema”.

Preetisheel Singh designs dual looks for South superstar Vijay

After recently designing mother and daughter looks for Madhuri Dixit for an advertisement, National Award-winning makeup, hair and prosthetic designer Preetisheel Singh, has now designed dual looks for Southern superstar Vijay for his upcoming Tamil flick Bigil. 

Preetisheel, who also received rave reviews recently for curating the looks for Ranveer Singh as Alauddin Khilji in Padmaavat, Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor in 102 Not Out, Ayushman Khurrana in Andhadhun and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in and as Thackeray, is excited as the first look poster of Bigil is out. 

She has good reason to be. Because Vijay's look in the film is unlike anything he has done before. The Southern hearththrob will be seen in two different avatars of father and son in the film directed by Atlee and having music by AR Rahman. 

"Hours of study have gone into building the character designs," says Preetisheel. "We didn’t want to lose the authenticity of the character or miss out on the aura projected by the legendary Vijay. Keeping this in mind, for the father's role, we added wrinkles around his laugh lines and on his forehead, using special-effects make-up. Along with that, we gave him salt 'n pepper hair which gave a classier touch." 

For his son’s character, Vijay was given "the trendy look that footballers of the current generation carry,” informs Preetisheel. She mentions that the superstar is a pleasure to work with. “Very humble and down-to-earth, Vijay not only showers trust, but patiently allows the team to work without interference. Both the actor and director put full faith in our vision and art, and that has immensely helped," she concludes. 

Apart from Bigil, Preetisheel is looking forward to many films, including the Akshay Kumar-starrer Housefull 4, Kangana Ranaut-starrer Panga, Nawazuddin Siddiqui-Radhika Apte-starrer Raat Akeli Hai and Nitesh Tiwari's Chhichhore; for which she has designed multiple young and old-age looks for an ensemble lead cast.

An experimental lockdown for Harshvardhan Rane

Actors often go to extreme lengths to get into the skin of their characters, and Harshavardhan Rane looks like one of those who endorses the same!

The committed actor has already started prepping up for his next highly-anticipated movie, Taish, a revenge-drama to be helmed by extremely talented filmmaker Bejoy Nambiar.

Being a method actor, Harshvardhan has decided to leave no stone unturned to make sure his character look and sound as per the script 's demand. He will get into the physical transformation to achieve a particular look and also imbibe particular traits.

Accordingly, it's learnt that Harshvardhan has decided to go into isolation and lock himself in a bungalow located few hundred kilometers away from Mumbai.

Informs a source, "Harshvardhan is ready to take himself to the next level because the role is complex, challenging and exciting. The actor who will be sharing screen space for the first time with Amit Sadh and Jim Sarbh in the revenge drama wants to subtract the external factors which don't contribute to his character. At the same time, he also wants to fulfill and surpass Bejoy Sir's expectations of him."

Without revealing much about the prepping process, Harshvardhan reveals, “I am experimenting with something like this for the first time, and want to tap into the unknown, not knowing what's going to come out of this." 

Bhayam- Thrill, obsession and action, Grand "First Look of Bhayam" launched in Mumbai

The First Look launch of Thriller action Movie Bhayam was held in Mumbai . Under the banner of Om shree Entertainment in association with Sheesh Chitra Entertainment, announces his upcoming film Bhayam in a grand party. The event is being attended by Producer Gulshan Monji, director  Veer Narayan and the cast- Gaurav Chansoria, Ankita Kashyap, Beena Bhatt, Simba Nagpal, Sparsh Sharma ,Rituraj Singh and Deepraj Rana . Shahid rafi , Mushak Khan and Ali Khan attended the majestic launch as chief guests.

Veer Narayan is the writer - director who have assisted S.S Rajamouli for 8 years and Gulshan Monji is the producer of the film. Nayab Ali Khan is the music director and Imran is the choreographer.The executive producer is Deepak Koli  and Sahil J Ansari is the cinematographer.  The film is starring Gaurav Chansoria,Ankita,Beena,Simba Nagpal, Sparsh Sharma ,Rituraj Singh and Deepraj Rana. On this grand occasion producer gulshan monji said "when I have heard the script of bhayam first time, I liked the script instantly and decided to produce this film under my banner. It will be a delight for audiences expecting edge of a seat thriller.I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all of you who generously helped us make this event come together."

The film is a horror /psycho thriller. The word Bhayam means Fear. The story is all about obsession for someone.Its a love story of Shree and Myra which no longer exists due to clashes between the families.Shree and Myra  were the film making students where they along with their others friends had gone to a haunted hills to shoot for their short film for their  final project. When they go to the hills for shoot they experienced some  supernatural activities.Group members started missing  Thus the obsession, thrill, horror and  action clearly defines the name of the film.It will be quite interesting to watch the film in the theatre as it has all the elements.

"Thanks to the producers umar sheikh Sir and Gulshan monji mam for believing  in me and my script ."- Veer Narayan added.