Digital Domain, a leading player in the visual effects arena, has made a foray into India with the opening of a studio in Hyderabad.
It is the 5th studio and the 10th location globally for the company that earlier this year opened facilities in Beijing and Hong Kong. The company, whose visual effects appear in films such as Titanic , The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Spider-Man: Homecoming and Beauty and the Beast , is keen on shaping the 42,000 sq. ft. facility in Hyderabad into the role of a mainstay for it.
Pegging the investment on the new facility in the range of $3 to $5 million, Chief Operating Officer Amit Chopra, in an interaction with media on Monday, said: “India is and will continue to be an integral part of Digital Domain’s global expansion plans.” The studio, in the fast developing financial district of Hyderabad, adds to the long list of leading new-age companies in the neighbourhood, including Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Google.
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“We foresee the region to be a leading consumer of premium content,” he said even as Sudhir Reddy, Head of Digital Studio, India, chipped in saying the company was keen on taking up work for customers in the country as well. To begin with, the Hyderabad studio would rely on the international projects -- movies, commercials as well as VR/AR work -- before the demand for its services, especially from Bollywood picks up.
On the cards for the Indian market are shows/content for mobile phones.
“Combined with the recent projections for smart phone growth and mobile bandwidth expansion in the region, people of India are primed to demand and expect premium content, and we are ready to deliver on that need,” Global CEO Daniel Seah said in a statement.
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Of the 500 people, who can be seated at the new facility, 205 are already on board. By middle of 2018, the headcount would touch 500, added Mr. Reddy. Globally, Digital Domain employed 1,400 people.
The new studio, inaugurated on Sunday by Telangana IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao, is at present involved in four big projects, the details of which the senior executives, however, refused to share citing NDA.
Digital Domain, he replied to a query, would in early 2018 start interacting with colleges to suggest changes to the curriculum.