What’s the deal with movies nowadays being high on VFX and CGI and low on plots? That’s the question cinephiles are raising after watching Ayan Mukerji’s Brahmastra and the teaser of Adipurush. Moreover, it’s also being reported that there are several projects, including Ram Setu, Ramayana, Krrish 4, among others, which are likely to be high on VFX too. We asked industry experts to weigh in on this new phenomenon.

Trade expert Joginder Tuteja explains that every “filmmaker wants something out-of-the-box to pull audiences to theatres. That’s why when it comes to cinematic experience, most of them are focusing on VFX nowadays”.

He adds, “Gone are those days when you could release mid-budget, mid-scale films with constrained visuals.”

In response to the criticism that VFX is being used as a marketing tool to promote films, trade analyst Atul Mohan says, “content is king, marketing is queen”. He says, “Brahmastra was a great example of this. They were the first ones to make a movie that was high on VFX and never had been attempted before in India. And there is no harm in using that for marketing. You have seen several movies featuring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, but VFX was the film’s USP.”

Film critic and trade analyst Komal Nahta notes, “What’s going wrong is not the promotion, but fringe elements creating controversies around any and every film. These days, it has become fashionable to criticize. Content is important, but VFX aisa hai, ye character waisa dikhta hai, ye galat hai, ye sahi hai. Who are you to pass those judgments?”

Whereas, Tuteja feels not just audiences, but even filmmakers go overboard discussing these elements, and that’s where they go wrong when they disclose the film’s budget and create unwarranted pressure on the stakeholders. “Instead, go ahead, make a movie and release it. You talk so much about it and people start expecting the moon, and when the results are not on the same line, disappointment follows,” he elaborates.

That being said, tech advancements in cinema are only a welcome change, but an excess of everything is bad. Abhishek De, creative director, FutureWorks, shares, “Films like Brahmastra and Adipurush need VFX. One is a period piece, while the other features mythological characters that cannot be created without the use of visual effects. When you talk about Ram Setu, you cannot create a set like that and shoot people walking on it. However, how you do it is the vision and job of the creative team.”