Impressed by Raghu and Pushpa Palat’s ebook “The Case That Shook the Empire,” Kesari Chapter 2: The Untold Story of Jallianwala Bagh follows the true story of Chettur Sankaran Nair’s authorized battle towards British colonial rule within the wake of the Jallianwala Bagh bloodbath. A non secular sequel to Kesari (2019), it trades the battlefield for the courtroom.
For FutureWorks senior colorist Tushar Desai, Kesari: Chapter 2 — directed by Karan Singh Tyagi and produced by Dharma Productions — introduced each a possibility and a problem. Having graded the unique Kesari (a extensively celebrated interval drama), Desai returned to grade the sequel. Desai’s position was half of a bigger submit manufacturing ecosystem managed by FutureWorks, together with the digital intermediate, visible results and digicam rental companies.
Tushar Desai
From the beginning, the artistic crew (Desai, Karan Tyagi and DP Debojeet Ray) agreed that Kesari: Chapter 2 wanted a definite visible identification. Whereas many interval movies depend on heat, sepia-heavy palettes to evoke a way of the previous, for this movie the crew opted for a extra restrained and grounded aesthetic. “The objective was to not stylize historical past however to inhabit it,” explains Desai. “Cooler, desaturated tones had been used selectively to convey the emotional weight of key scenes, with pure pores and skin tones and environments saved entrance and heart all through.”
The pivotal Jallianwala Bagh sequence demonstrates this strategy. Not like earlier cinematic portrayals of the occasion (resembling these in Gandhi or Sardar Udham Singh), this model was intentionally stripped of visible romanticism. Desai and the crew aimed for a uncooked tone, one that may underscore the affect of the bloodbath with out visible extra. It was not about imitation however about evoking an emotional response.
The technical spine of this look started on-set with the Sony Venice digicam paired with Hawk V-Lite anamorphic lenses provided by FutureWorks Rental. This mix supplied wealthy, textured imagery with a cinematic depth well-suited for the movie’s interval setting. From a grading perspective, Desai selected to work in FilmLight’s T-Log pipeline relatively than the extra common ACES system. Whereas ACES is common for its standardization, Desai felt T-Log supplied larger flexibility, particularly given the movie’s a number of deliverables and heavy VFX integration. “The system allowed for fantastic management over tonal vary and dynamic element whereas nonetheless preserving the artistic integrity of every scene,” he explains.
The collaboration between Desai and Ray was essential to attaining the movie’s distinctive look. Having labored collectively on three earlier options, the pair had developed a shorthand that allowed for a excessive diploma of alignment. Throughout preproduction, Desai was concerned in in depth digicam and lens testing, making certain the colour pipeline would maintain up throughout all phases of manufacturing. “All through the shoot, Debojeet recurrently shared uncooked stills and pictures from the set, enabling us to make early assessments and changes that paid dividends in the course of the ultimate grade,” Desai says.
Within the grading suite, Desai labored with Baselight, layering in further instruments to boost the movie’s visible texture. X Grade helped him to refine broader coloration shifts, whereas machine learning-based face monitoring allowed for exact and constant changes to actors’ pores and skin tones, notably vital in dialogue-heavy sequences. The Hawk V-Lite lenses introduced their very own character to the body, and whereas Desai deliberately preserved some distortion, he used lens-correction instruments the place needed to take care of visible readability. In sure sequences, he added refined digital enhancements, resembling sky replacements and environmental results, within the grade itself, serving to to bridge the hole between sensible pictures and VFX.
Grading came about over a number of weeks, with every of the movie’s six reels containing roughly 350 pictures. Ranging from the preliminary assessments and persevering with by way of to supply, Desai remained carefully concerned in each stage. He graded the primary cross for theatrical projection in P3, adopted by a Dolby Imaginative and prescient HDR model and an SDR trim. Throughout all variations, the target was consistency, not simply in coloration science, however in emotional tone. Desai’s problem was to protect the integrity of the movie’s look, whether or not it was enjoying in a cinema, on a streaming platform or on a tv display.
“The method wasn’t with out its pressures,” says Desai. “The Jallianwala Bagh scene, for instance, was filmed over a number of days however wanted to seem as one steady, emotionally charged stretch of time.” Matching lighting and sustaining tonal stability throughout the sequence required cautious grading selections and a meticulous eye for continuity.
One other artistic hurdle got here with the courtroom scenes, which spanned seven completely different settings. “Every wanted to really feel distinct, marking modifications in time and placement, with out disrupting the visible unity of the movie. To do that, we subtly various the grade in every courtroom whereas preserving the movie’s general palette,” he continues.
Visible Results
The colour grade additionally needed to align carefully with the in depth visible results work, all delivered by FutureWorks. The VFX crew dealt with over 2,000 pictures, together with the whole digital recreation of Jallianwala Bagh, CG crowds, bullet impacts, digital blood results and full greenscreen practice platform sequences rendered in each daylight and nighttime. Different work included CG aircrafts, matte-painted environments and digital set extensions, all of which needed to combine seamlessly with the live-action footage.
“As a result of DI and VFX had been each below the FutureWorks umbrella, communication between departments was fluid,” explains Desai. “Every time the VFX crew required LUTs, BLGs or balanced scans to match the grade, we might provide them rapidly. Common calls and real-time suggestions loops saved us all aligned, serving to to streamline the submit manufacturing schedule. On-set HDRI seize, lidar scans and reference pictures additionally ensured lighting continuity and photorealism throughout composited sequences.”
