One of the biggest cinematic action-adventures of the year is Telugu-language “RRR,” which follows real-life 1920s Indian free-dom fighters Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) and Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan).
Directed by S.S. Rajamouli, the three-hour-plus filled is stuffed end-to-end with action choreography, stunt work, pyrotechxnics and VFX.
One standout sequence unfolds in the middle of the film when Bheem unleashes wild animals from a truck to attack the British in a wild scene with tigers, leopards and other assorted beasts flying through the air, leaping on soldiers and creating havoc.
Rajamouli knew the sequence would be one of the most important moments in the film. “He wanted something out of this world,” cinematographer K.K. Senthil Kumar says.
To pull it off, Kumar collaborated closely with production designer Sabu Cyril and VFX supervisor V. Srinivas Mohan early in the filmmaking process.
In addition to the wild animals, the team needed to consider a fire that ignites during the sequence.
Kumar says the department heads came up with different ideas and concept artists helped to visualize every scene, especially how the CGI animals would move through the scenes. “We looked at how the animals were going to come up,” he says.
Cyril spent 15 days taking into consideration the details such as how the truck needed to move, including making a truck model that they could batter around. “I ended up putting the real trunk on rails, so that when it doesn’t stop, [it] turns at this precise point and the animals come out,” says Cyril.
But the effects were being completed in post, and Mohan knew the actors and artists needed to see how the animals were moving. “They needed to see how fast they’re moving so they could frame it correctly and focus on either the animal or the actor. The camera needed to move at the right speed,” he says.
His trick? Aside from the mammoth previz work, he says, “We placed LED strips where the animals would be. So, when the director yelled action, the actor and everyone would know exactly where the action was happening.”
Mohan adds that they used a simulator camera on set, which was key for Kumar, who could see the CG tiger in his monitor. “Those were some techniques we used on location, and then we moved to post where it was easier to get things right.”
In lighting the scene, Kumar says, “this was the largest amount of light that I had ever used in my career.” The film’s slow-motion shots, he says, needed the very high-intensity lighting.
Light-filled 200-foot cranes were used; Kumar combined soft lighting with focus lighting for the principal actors so the audience’s eyes would be guided toward the action, despite the many extras in the scene.
The fire, the team says, was real. “Only the fireworks were added through VFX.”