IEEE Spectrum February, 2009 - 29

dream
m
09

jobs

reeL to reaL: Keya Banerjee can use a
green chroma screen to give movie directors
the right background for any scene.
photo: michaEl RubinStEin; SKy, pEtE tuRnER/GEtty imaGES

her main infatuation was with adobe
photoshop and premiere, software that
allowed the manipulation and layering of
moving images. she spent many blissful
hours assembling scraps of video and
music into digital movie clips for her own
amusement. "eagles flying, people dancing.
i put it to James Bond music," she says.
"it was quite ridiculous, but it was fun. my
parents had to tear me away from it to eat
lunch and dinner."
she got her start in special effects by
interning at studios during summer breaks
in college, and she kept on with it after
graduating from st. Xavier's college in
mumbai in 1998. Her big break came in
2003, during a stint in the motion picture
division of utV, the biggest indian media
and entertainment conglomerate. she was
assigned to be the on-set supervisor for
visual effects for a motion picture called
lakshya, set during the 1999 Kargil war
between india and pakistan. the movie
wound up with 38 minutes of special
effects-a huge amount for a Bollywood
this specialist in reality-based movie effects film in those days.
set in the mountainous region of
is happiest when you don't notice her work
Kashmir, the movie tells the story of
an aimless young man who finds purpose and discipline as an indian soldier
eYa BaNerJee says she was
drive Bollywood blockbusters. But Banerjee, in the Kargil conflict. many of the effects
never destined to be a great
perhaps uniquely among her peers in india,
involved mountain-climbing scenes; they
actress. Her father, the actor
focuses on small, independent films.
were shot with actors in harnesses clamVictor Banerjee, is renowned for his leading
although her dad was a pretty big star in
bering over an 18-meter-high faux mounroles in such films as David lean's 1984
his day, she didn't grow up on film sets or
tainside on a set in mumbai. in the finclassic a passage to india. But Keya's one
in swank hotels, she says. and she insists
ished film, the men appear to be high up
star turn, as Jocasta in her high school's
she still isn't a Bollywood creature. maybe
on a jagged cliff. to achieve that effect,
staging of oedipus Rex, was short and none
so, but late on a tuesday
Banerjee used chroma
too sweet. on opening night, the show's
night she seems in her eletechnology, in which blue
producers had second thoughts about her,
ment at zenzi, an ultrafashscreens on either side of
and the production closed after only two
ionable watering hole in
the fake mountain and also
age: 32
performances. "they realized they made a
mumbai's Bandra district,
below it were replaced durWhat she
mistake," Banerjee recalls.
where many Bollywood
ing compositing with imagdoes: Visualtruth be told, she wasn't all that crushed.
stars live and carouse.
ery shot on location.
effects supervisor
Her great passion wasn't drama. it was
Banerjee, in a stylish black
"on location" meant some
for Whom:
computers. she'd always been drawn
suit, sits sipping a drink at a
of the most rugged and
tata elxsi Visual
to techie pursuits in school. the aV club
big round table with a few
remote spots in Kashmir.
computing labs
and stage crew were her haunts. after
of her friends.
"i lived there for three
Where she
encountering a personal computer for the
Beautiful people stop by
months with the entire
does it:
first time at age 12, she thought, "oh, my
every 15 minutes or so. she
crew," she explains. "it was
mumbai
god, this is what i want to do."
greets them by first name.
actually in many ways the
fun factors:
today, as a visual-effects coordinator
there are eruptions of hugs
best and worst experience
works with top
at tata elxsi's Visual computing labs,
and air kisses. she responds,
of my life." she was thrilled
directors and
in mumbai, she supervises teams of
repeatedly, to the inevitable
to be in charge, at the tender
actors; directs
designers, animators, compositors, and
"How are you?" with an
age of 27, of visual effects
teams that
other computer specialists who conjure up
ebullient and maybe slightly
for a major motion picture.
execute state-ofspecial effects to accommodate the visions
facetious "super duper!"
But life in Kashmir was no
the-art special
of some of india's top movie directors.
Hard to believe she was
picnic. "the weather went
effects for
computer effects are increasingly what
a teenage nerd. Back then,
to -12 degrees, and that was
movies.

Keya Banerjee
magical Realism

K

34

NA * IEEE SPECTRuM * FEBRuARY 2009

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum February, 2009
