South superstar Nagarjuna Akkineni to build India's first virtual production stage

South superstar Nagarjuna Akkineni's Annapurna Studios and Qube Cinema announced their plans to deliver India’s first full-service LED virtual production stage for pan-Indian and international content creators. This transformative collaboration between two of India’s most respected names in the media business aims to provide the tools for creators to craft the best versions of their stories for feature films, streaming episodics and advertising commercials.

“The future belongs to whoever designs it! When faced with disruptions and innovations, we must learn to maneuver. Virtual production enables the creative mind to imagine without limit, and then create it. We are proud to partner with Qube, renowned for bringing new technology to the entertainment industry. Our strength and experience in making movies and running studios in tandem with Qube’s technical knowledge makes this a great collaboration,” said Nagarjuna of Annapurna Studios.

The purpose-built virtual production stage with a 20 ft high and 60 ft wide curved 2.3 mm dot- pitch, ultra high refresh rate, wide colour gamut, high brightness LED screen is expected to be the first world-class permanent facility in India. The setup will use top-of-the-line AOTO LED displays, state-of-the-art camera tracking and powerful, custom-built rendering systems using Unreal Engine to render complex photorealistic virtual locations in real-time. This would help filmmakers greatly expand their palette while saving money by reducing compositing and on- location production costs and saving time by enabling the creative team to see close-to-final shots on camera, in real-time on the live-action set.

Qube's success in transforming the media industry in India multiple times over the last three decades emerged from the company’s willingness and ability to identify and adopt technology that had the potential to greatly improve their own feature and advertising production and post- production workflows. Annapurna and Qube will draw on this experience to reimagine the production process for today's fast-paced and demanding entertainment environment with virtual production — the next evolutionary step in content production.

“At Qube, we've always been at the forefront of movie technology, combining our passion for cinema and our willingness to push the limits of technology for the benefit of content creators and audiences,” said Senthil Kumar, co-founder of Qube Cinema. “In Annapurna Studios, we have found a partner who brings decades of experience, a deep love of cinema, and many shared values to the table. We are thrilled to be working with them on virtual production. Our purpose is to bring to life every story, to engage, entertain and enlighten the world. This collaboration pushes us ever closer to fulfilling that purpose.”

The stage expects to begin setup and testing in early June and be available for commercial projects from October 1, 2022.