MUMBAI: Prime Focus has launched its fourth India facility at Chennai.

This facility will cater to the post production and visual effects needs of the Chennai market, which have grown with the South Indian film industry accounting for over 50 per cent of India’s current film production.  

Prime Focus has invested Rs 120 million (Rs 12 crore) in the 5000 square feet, 55 artist set-up. Equipped with state-of-the-art post-production and visual effects technologies including one high end Thomson Spirit 4K Scanner, DaVinci 2K Plus Colour Grader, two Autodesk Lustre Film Grading Systems, two Autodesk Smoke Finishing Systems, four Avid Film Editing Systems and a Film Recorder, the Chennai facility will help the company to tap the growing Tamil film market, says a release.  

The Tamil film industry is the second largest film industry in India and one of the most successful. According to industry estimates, more than 135 Tamil movies were made in 2006. Several Malayalam and Kannada films are created in Chennai as well. The 2006 success of big budget films such as Dishoom, Jillini Oru Kaadal, Godfather and others, has spurred a boom among producers to make similar big budget extravaganzas costing anywhere between Rs 150 million (Rs 15 crore) to Rs 400 million (Rs 40 crore), claims the company.  

Says Prime Focus Director – Corporate Development Amit Gupta, “Prime Focus’ focus is to expand our footprint in the local and global markets. The acquisition of VTR in London and the Chennai facility launch is in line with these growth plans.”