Special Effects for Movies Outsourced to India from Hollywood

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India has become a premier destination in the global outsourcing market for IT and BPO services. It is now using this foundation to break into more specialized areas such as special effects for the entertainment industry.

India's entry into in this area comes amid troubled times in the U.S., as special effects firms have been impacted by a LA writers strike in 2008 - not to mention curbed financing during the credit crunch. According to Indian special effects executives, price pressures are pushing special effects work toward India which offers cost savings up to 40%.

Although Indian special effects firms are not major players at the moment, it is only a matter of time before the gap between Hollywood and Bollywood is bridged. Historically, Hollywood's special effects industry has been dominated by firms like Industrial Light & Magic. Indian firms had been focused on the Indian film industry with a different set of standards that did not fit with Hollywood. Now, however, we are starting to see major investments in the India special effects industry.

Two experienced Hollywood executives recently opened visual effects companies companies in India. The first, Geon, was opened by Barrie Osborne, the "Lord of the Rings" producer and the second, EyeQube was opened by Charles Darby who has worked on numerous blockbusters including "Titanic".

S. Nagarajan, operating officer of Mumbai-based Visual Computing Labs, (visual effects and animation unit of Tata Elxsi), one of India's most sought after studios told the Associated Press, "Economic conditions are playing out favorably for us," adding, "people are more willing to experiment."