Late Kannada superstar Vishnuvardhan has played a cameo in this week’s mega-budget release, Shivanagam, made by veteran filmmaker Kodi Ramakrishna.

Using CGI technology, Makuta VFX, the company which worked on films such as Baahubali and Eega, spent nearly 22 months to recreate Vishnuvardhan digitally and the whole process cost a whopping Rs 15 crore.

Talking to Bangalore Mirror, producer Sajid Qureshi said, “The visual effects (VFX) for the nine minutes in which Vishnuvardhan was created alone cost Rs 15 crore. There are also many other computer generated VFX in the film including scenes where actress Ramya transforms into a snake. Up to 60 minutes of the film has computer generated VFX.”

Explaining how a dead actor was recreated, producer Sajid Qureshi said, “In simple form if you want to describe about this CGI technology it is head replacement. Then with the CGI technology, the head of Vishnuvardhan that is created by VFX is replaced. It is the most difficult VFX. We have to match body action, face expressions and voice of the character with the real Vishnuvardhan. Creating Vishnuvardhan was more challenging, because the director wanted to use the same getup and way Vishnuvardhan was seen in his last few films. That will connect immediately with the audience (sic).”

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