Odia girl's hand in 'Life of Pi' success

BALASORE: While Ang Lee is celebrating his Oscar glory of 'Life of Pi', the movie's Odia connection has brought celebrations to an entire village in Balasore district.
Meet Anuradha Behera, a native of Mulananagar village, about seven kilometres from the district headquarters. Behera worked as a production coordinator of a Hyderabad-based company Rhythm and Hues, which made the visual effects for the movie.
Starting from the ferocious Bengal tiger Richard Parker to the stormy sea and the flying-fish sequence to the wonderful Meerkat Islands, all effects in the movie were worked upon by artistes at Rhythm and Hues.
"The film won four Oscars, including one for the best visual effects. Even before the announcement, the entire team was sure about the win, as Rhythm and Hues was nominated for two films: 'Life of Pi' and 'Snow White And The Huntsman'," she told TOI from Hyderabad.
"It was like a dream come true. The team of young professionals was overwhelmed at the achievement. It had taken three years to complete the project. And finally, our hard work paid off," she added.
Based on the best-selling novel by Yann Martel, 'Life of Pi' tells the story of a young man's incredible survival at sea against all odds. In fact, the film was shot in a water tank and the visual effects team had to work very hard to give the feel of the ocean and the sky above.
"The most challenging job was to make the Bengal tiger Richard Parker. It took nearly a year. It has been made in such a way that one cannot find it a computer-generated one. The tiger has 10 million digital furs. The team had to work extremely meticulously to bring sync between the real water and computer generated water," Anuradha said.
Daughter of Madhusudan Behera and Meera Behera, Anuradha had started her career in journalism. "Visual effects was an entirely new field for me and working with the talented team of Rhythm and Hues Studios was a nice experience," she said.
Under the supervision of Rhythm and Hues, Bill Westenhofer and Erik Jan DeBoer, besides the company's India founder director Saraswathi Belgam, the 300-odd visual effects artistes executed over 75% of the shots in the movie.
While Mulananagar is still celebrating Anuradha's parents are overjoyed. "We can nowbe proud that our daughter is a part of the Oscar winning team," her father said.