FutureWorks provided all colour work for Jio Studios’ action thriller Bloody Daddy, working closely with the directorial crew to produce the movie. The company also delivered rental, sound and VFX services.
Bloody Daddy stars Shahid Kapoor in the lead and revolves around a messed up, tenacious man who faces off against cops and crime lords to save the one relationship that matters to him. Directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, the action thriller is now streaming exclusively on Jio Cinema. The Hindi-language movie is an adaptation of the 2011 French film Sleepless Night and stars Shahid Kapoor as a narcotics officer on a mission to rescue his son from a ruthless drug lord.
FutureWorks graded the entire movie ahead of its release on the OTT platform of Jio. Filmed in just 36 days during the pandemic, and graded over the course of several months, Bloody Daddy‘s look is characterised by deep blacks, paired with bright, saturated hues.
FutureWorks head of colour Rahul Purav said, “The film has a rich, dark look with lots of colour and contrasts so maintaining the continuity was especially difficult. The black levels are very dense in this film and much of the action takes place at night, but we didn’t want the images to look too processed as that would distract the audience. Balancing the colour and luminance contrast was especially challenging.”
As an action film, Bloody Daddy is packed with movement, while the condensed timeline of the plot means that there’s a frenetic pace throughout. One of the most remarkable scenes is a kitchen fight. “For this, I created a palette with orange and teal blue. I had to maintain those ratios and cancel out various colours to make it work. I designed a contrast curve which was sustained throughout the entire film. As the film is shot at multiple different locations, I didn’t want to alter the contrast too much for the audience, or it would take them out of the action,” explained Purav.
From the warm orange and yellow tones of the kitchen, the action moves into the freezer room. “This had a very cold, dry and neutral look, while still retaining a very similar contrast in the ratios,” he added.
Another visually dazzling scene involves an altercation in a dark arcade, packed with brightly lit slot machines. Purav said, “Here the challenge for me as a colourist was maintaining the right level of colour with the contrast and balancing that with how the camera was moving and how the light was coming through, while still maintaining those deep blacks”.
With much of the film shot on live locations, there were certain parameters and limitations that needed to be considered, so the definitive look of the film had to be designed with that in mind. Delivering high-quality results with this level of complexity wouldn’t have been possible without the close collaboration between Purav and cinematographer Marcin Laskawiec.
“We worked very closely together to ascertain the best approach,” explained Purav. “Marcin told me all about the specific conditions that they would be shooting under at certain locations, and how they would control them, so I was able to take this into account when grading the film to bring the look together in a cohesive way.”
For much of the project, Purav worked with Laskawiec remotely using Colorfront’s Remote Streaming Solution and Adobe’s Frame.io in live grading sessions where he was able to give his feedback. Laskawiec explained, “I completed colour grading for my first film in India at FutureWorks with Rahul, and since then, whenever I come back here to Mumbai to finish another project, this team is my first choice every time. I trust them completely — thanks to them, my films look exactly as I imagined them. In addition, when I’m not there in person, we can conduct a full session remotely via the internet from any place where I am at the moment.”
Director Ali Abbas Zafar shared, “Bloody Daddy is a story of one night and one location. It required very distinctive looks between each of the sub-locations, yet with a unifying factor, along with a raw and edgy look. Colorist Rahul Purav and DoP Marcin Laskawiec collaborated closely, and sometimes remotely, to achieve the distinctive visuals. With its remote grading setup and workflow, Futureworks facilitated seamless collaboration between Marcin, Rahul, and my team which enabled us to make the best decisions for Bloody Daddy.”
FutureWorks’ CEO Gaurav Gupta said, “Our work on Bloody Daddy shows how strong collaboration between our experienced colourists and the directorial team can bring exciting stories to the screen in a visually stunning way.”