Karizma reaches new heights

The Skinny

Bollywood leading man Hrithik Roshan who hails from an extended family of cinema personalities is the protagonist in this new integrated marketing campaign to promote Honda’s premium Karizma ZMR motorbike. This third collaboration between Hrithik and Honda sees the acclaimed superstar walking among his collection of boy toys in a hangar space – muscle cars, choppers, and amidst it all, the new Honda Karizma ZMR – and admiring his spoils. From the distance, a twister looms and darkens the skies before approaching and whipping the cap off Hrithik’s head, before making a turn towards the countryside.

Not content to let a stealing twister have its way, Hrithik leaps on his new Honda Karizma ZMR and gives chase. He pursues the twister across long, winding open roads while the twister brings on lightning strikes, fierce winds and flying debris that don’t deter our hero. As the twister winds its way to a nearby island creating a huge wave in its wake, our hero revs up his ZMR, rides inside the tidal wave, and zooms out the other end where he breaches the wall of the twister and finally retrieves his cap! Mission accomplished and Hrithik rests his cap firmly on his head, where it belongs.

The Production

Bang Bang Films in Mumbai was entrusted by JWT Delhi for its client, Hero Honda of India, to create this fury of nature’s visual feast.

Bang Bang Films brought on board talented South African director, Lourens van Rensburg (from seven Films in Cape Town), and teamed up with VHQ Singapore to work out the intricate details of live action, background plates, chroma key scenes, CG and 3D elements and all the other VFX requirements that would go into creating a spectacular launch for Honda’s leading motorcycle in India.

During a strenuous six-day shoot in monsoon weather, Lourens combined his bike riding expertise with his directorial skills to capture the action sequences that would be later enhanced with all the digital effects, to shoot a quick-paced man-versus-nature chase sequence. Lau Kia Hau from VHQ was on location to ensure that all the background plates and chroma key scenes were shot with plenty of tracking points so the intensive post production processes of motion tracking and rotoscoping could begin almost simultaneously.

The Post

Once the off-line edit was completed in Mumbai, it emerged that 58 out of the 65 total shots in the edit required rotoscoping, storm skies and lightning inserts, plus a twister with the right amount of menace, movement and shape to be conjured up for more than 20 shots. The photo-realistic tidal wave consumed another nine scenes. To accommodate the massive workload, VHQ brought together the talents and capacities of the 3D departments in both their Singapore and Kuala Lumpur offices to meet the tight deadline.

“When we first looked at the job we felt we would have to go to the States or London to get the results we wanted, but both time and budget prevented us from pursuing that option” commented director, Lourens.

Instead, under the guiding hand of William Woo, VHQ’s Head of Post and VFX director, a team of over 20 people were involved for eight weeks in creating the complex elements for a final, exciting commercial.

“We knew when VHQ sent us the first WIP of the wave sequence that we were in great hands and it was a great delight for all of us to follow the progress to the final end product” said Agency Producer Suprotim Day.

Elvis Sequeira, vice president & executive creative director of JWT, India – the agency appointed for this commercial, is as equally pleased with the final result. He adds, “any post heavy film always gives me the jitters as I always seem to end up with something short of what I imagined while writing the script … but the VHQ team brought a very tough script to life by producing a near-flawless execution under considerable constraints of time, budget and availability of source material.”

Credits Client: Honda Karizma ZMR Director: Lourens van Rensburg D.O.P: Jason West Production Company: Bang Bang Films Production Producer: Kirk Dias, Shivani Mehta Agency: JWT Delhi Creative Directors: Elvis Sequeira, Sabuj Sengupta Agency Producer: Suprotim Day Post Production House: VHQ Post Post Producer: Mike Low/Syakeera Post Supervisor: William Woo Shoot Supervision: Lau Kia Hau Colourist: Corey Spykerman 3D: Ryan Wong, Choon, Beng Weng, Yng Chih, Prashanth, Apple, Eric Gambini Designer: Rainiko Au On-Line Artists: Aik, Ian Henri