Eros starts EyeQube Studios with Charles Darby

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Mumbai, 2007: Eros International Plc, the leading integrated company within the Indian media and entertainment sector, announced its foray into visual effects in association with leading international talent, Charles Darby. The new venture will be called EyeQube Studios Private Limited.

EyeQube is positioned to be India"s first company that"s built from the ground-up for film effects supported by world-class training from renowned international experts in the field. Charles Darby is one of the pioneers of digital matte paintings and has been associated with more than 45 films in the last 13 years. Darby"s work includes Academy and BAFTA award-winning work on films such as Titanic, The Matrix, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Fifth Element and Minority Report.

His most recent work includes Girl with a Pearl Earring, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and I Robot. He won an Emmy in 2006 for his art direction and VFX designs for HBO"S “Rome". High-profile 'Rome" is the most expensive television show in history, costing almost $100 million. The other television series Darby was involved with, “Dune", also won an Emmy for best VFX.

EyeQube will provide the most cutting edge visual effects platform for Indian filmmakers. The company will employ some of the finest supervisors and artists to run “master classes" in individual departments and will bring in trainers who are, amongst others, ex-WETA, ILM and MPC staff. EyeQube will provide artists a canvas to explore their creativity, which will be a huge paradigm shift from removing wires and other mechanical jobs that seem to plague the Indian visual effects industry in the present. EyeQube will provide freedom to all those people within the industry who have thus far been afraid of 'imagining".

EyeQube will cater to the top-end visual effects work in the industry and internationally. It will exclusively handle visual effects for all of Eros International"s home productions and co-productions. The company has already commenced work on Eros International"s much awaited films Aladin and Drona and has several other films in the pipeline. EyeQube Studios has kicked off a massive recruitment drive within India to find the brightest and the best to be the founding core team.

Commenting on the occasion Sunil Lulla, President India, Eros International said, “Eros is immensely proud to announce our foray into the world of Visual Effects and who better than Charles Darby to lead us from the front. EyeQube will help raise the bar of Indian visual effects and catapult our industry to international standards. Our artistes deserve better, our filmmakers deserve better and above all our audiences deserve better. EyeQube will produce not only Indian films with visual effects never seen before, but also be selectively involved with a few prestigious international projects. This is our chance to build something special for the Indian film industry"

Charles Darby, Creative Director, EyeQube Studios Pvt. Ltd. Said, “India has talent, drive, passion and ambition. What it lacked was infrastructure and exposure to the right opportunity, which Eros is bringing to the table. In a backdrop where there is still a large amount of confusion as to the difference between Animation and Visual Effects, EyeQube will be something like Hollywood in a Box to the Indian filmmakers. Our collective strengths will allow us to channelize the talent within India into a very special facility that focuses on quality rather than quantity and sets exemplary standards in their work. Every image we create will speak volumes about our company. They will make clear our innovation, our attention to detail, our whole company ethos. Each image will be a statement of our creativity. We intend to change not just visual effects in India but to form a company that alters the way large films are produced in India, bringing a creative system in place more reminiscent to Hollywood."