South and East Asian VFX Studios meet local and global demand

Framestore's Mumbai studio is featured as one of the VFX houses expanding their talent pool into Asia.

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FRAMESTORE MUMBAI

Framestore formally opened the doors to its Mumbai office in October 2021, but the team had been in place and working on film and episodic projects since early 2020, according to Fiona Walkinshaw, CEO, Film & Episodic. She explains, “We’d had a successful partnership with Pune-based studio Anibrain for several years and continue to do so, but as we’ve scaled up our business and our ambitions it quickly became apparent that, rather than a partner, we wanted a presence in India that was Framestore through and through – one that knew our pipeline, knew our people and was part of our rich creative culture. We looked at several locations, but Mumbai really stood out. The city has a tremendously rich film heritage, and there’s an incredible melting pot of skills and specialisms that don’t just begin and end with VFX but encompass tech and engineering as well.”

Walkinshaw adds, “We were very clear that we wanted our Mumbai studio to be a fully integrated part of our business. If it was going to be a Framestore studio then the work has to be excellent, and that means a commitment on our part to making sure the team in Mumbai have access to the same training, opportunities and company culture as everywhere else. Paint and roto are part of our offer, but right now we’re building out teams across the studio, trying to find the best texture, lighting, FX, DMP, compositing and modeling talent at all levels.”

Managing Director Sinha comments, “India, in particular Mumbai, is reaching a stage of maturity. We’re seeing senior and mid-level artists really come into their own having worked on a range of very different shows for high-profile clients, and this provides additional support for those earlier in their careers. It means you have more educational and mentoring opportunities, which has a sort of a ripple-out effect for the whole talent base.”

Sinha expects that Framestore’s Mumbai studio will have 300+ employees by the end of the year. “We’re in the process of doubling our studio space and doubling our headcount. As with the initial build, this will be a purpose-built, state-of-the-art space that lends itself to training and creative culture as much as the work itself.” He notes that the team has worked on recent titles such as Thor: Love and Thunder, The Little Mermaid and Peter Pan & Wendy.”