Namit Malhotra says award proves India has become a major centre of excellence for VFX production
If the colossal sandworms in Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi film, Dune: Part Two, made it to the Oscars, hundreds of artists in India’s metros need to take a bow. For the stunning sequences, the deadly worm-like creatures, “massive battle scenes and complex environmental builds” were painstakingly executed by these artists working in studios in Indian cities like Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru.
These artists are part of DNEG, a leading visual effects, animation and creative technologies company, which was acquired by the Indian company Prime Focus in 2014. Led by Indian CEO Namit Malhotra, DNEG is now basking in the limelight for bagging an Oscar, its eighth, for creating the immersive visual effects in Dune: Part Two.
The sandworms in the film inhabit the desert planet Arrakis and the Fremen, the indigenous people of Arrakis, the desert planet, worship them as divine beings. Malhotra, who calls the Oscar win “an incredibly proud and humbling moment” for everyone at the company, also points out that the award proves that India has become a “major centre of excellence for VFX production”.
DNEG enters AI space
Interestingly, in a major development, Malhotra shared with The Federal that DNEG’s technology division, Brahma, has made a big move in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) space by acquiring Metaphysic, a global leader in AI technology.
The tech firm Metaphysic is famous for using its generative AI-driven tool to de-age in real time Hollywood actors on screen like Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. These actors were made to look younger using face replacement technology.
Malhotra said their Brahma will now also pioneer “ultra-realistic digital doubles of India’s most iconic figures” across industries, using their market-leading 3D and 2D tools. (So, wait for younger Shah Rukh Khan or Aamir Khan on celluloid soon).
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“The impact of this technology is already evident in Robert Zemeckis’ Here, where AI-powered real-time de-aging of Tom Hanks and Robin Wright showcased its game-changing potential,” Malhotra said, adding that the future of “AI-driven storytelling is here” and they are at the “forefront” of it.
India’s impact on global entertainment world
On the Oscar triumph for Dune: Part Two, Malhotra elaborated on how the teams in India “contributed significantly” across multiple sequences, and it took hundreds of artists working across “thousands of man-hours to bring such intricate and photorealistic effects to life”.
The teams in India played an “integral role” in the project, reinforcing India’s growing impact on the global entertainment landscape, asserted Malhotra.
On developing the sandworm by merging technology and storytelling, he shared, “Bringing the sandworm of Arrakis to life was a masterclass in innovation, collaboration, and technical excellence. This iconic creature required a seamless fusion of artistry and cutting-edge VFX, with our global teams — including key contributions from India — working together across every stage of production. The challenge was not just in its scale but in making it move as a force of nature, shaping the world around it.”
According to Malhotra, their success in being able to shape the environments of Dune: Part Two or pioneer new VFX techniques in Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus Oppenheimer has ensured they constantly invest in “new technology, AI-driven workflows, and top-tier talent”. Their goal: to push the limits of what’s possible on screen.
Nolan’s worlds
DNEG seems to have had a runaway hit rate with that. Their portfolio extends to films that had path-breaking and complex visual effects like Tenet (2021), First Man (2019), Blade Runner 2049 (2018), Ex Machina (2016), Interstellar (2015) and Inception (2011).
One of Malhotra’s favourite directors is Christopher Nolan, with whom the company has collaborated across multiple projects since the ‘time inversion’ in Tenet (2020). DNEG has also worked with Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17, which releases on March 7, to create some “visually stunning sci-fi worlds”.
Taking Ramayana to the world
Malhotra is also producer of the big-budget, upcoming Ranbir Kapoor-Sai Pallavi starrer Ramayana, which is shrouded in secrecy; it will release in two parts in 2026 and 2027. DNEG CEO, in his interviews to TV channels, has confessed that this is his passionate project on which he has been working for years and after winning eight Oscars, he seems confident enough to take India’s most famous mythological tale to the world using some advanced technology.
Asked how DNEG is incorporating Artificial Intelligence in their work and its impact on visual effects in films, Malhotra admitted that AI is “transforming storytelling” and changing the way they create. Realising the key role that AI is going to play in cinema and in the entertainment world, the company acquired Metaphysic.
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“This will help us build cutting-edge tools to empower storytellers across industries. By blending AI with human creativity, we’re making high-quality content creation more accessible and scalable than ever,” he pointed out, without elaborating on the details.
Creating ultra-realistic content
Brahma will now be focused on developing a comprehensive suite of AI-native products across video, image, and audio and AI-driven content, he said. It will be built on 25 years of industry-leading proprietary data and will democratise high-fidelity content creation across industries.
“Brahma will work with Metaphysic to develop AI-powered tools for enterprises, IP rights-holders, and content creators, which will help them to produce ultra-realistic content at an unprecedented scale,” he added.
Malhotra busts the belief that AI is reserved for people with small budgets since “AI has made it possible for creators at all levels to produce breathtaking content”. This is a bold leap forward — one that will disrupt the global entertainment landscape, from media and entertainment to retail, healthcare, and education, he pointed out.
Responding to director James Cameron’s claim that the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation will be the ‘next wave’ in cinema, after he joined the board of AI firm, Stability AI, Malhotra agreed that AI and CGI are shaping the future of filmmaking.
“One key area is AI-assisted world-building, where directors can generate photorealistic landscapes and environments in real-time,” he said, adding that this technology streamlines production, enhances creative flexibility, and makes high-quality VFX more accessible for all.
