Misha Gautam came to the city of his childhood, where his professor father, Desh Gautam, used to teach before migrating to Bollywood to make films in the late sixties. He spent some time with the students of Arena Multimedia in Sector 35 telling them that though special effects in India are what were there in American film industry 40 years back, they are gaining in scope and the youngsters should make them of international standard.

Earlier speaking to Newsline, Misha who has graduated in engineering, noted, "I was very much interested in special effects from day one in Bollywood, though I had to start as a production assistant to Ashok Ghai during the making of Trimurti. For I just wanted to be in the film world."

But it was Jaan, an Ajay Devgan-Twinkle Khanna film, wherein Misha worked as production-in-charge that proved the turning point. "Ajay became a good friend and when Veeru began conceptualising Hindustan Ki Kasam, he took me for I had worked during the making of the promo for Ajay's Pyar To Hona Hi Tha."

Misha is thrilled that though he was no match for James Cameron's multiplicity in Titanic, he could at least succeed in creating an exact double of Ajay Devgan in the film through computer-generation. "The double role sequences are the best as far as I am concerned for even in close shots you cannot make out whether there was a real Ajay or not. Though the scene between Bose and Amitabh is something that was never attempted before, I am not happy with the outcome. For the Film Vision's footage of Bose was very distorted whereas the shots of the actors was on the latest Kodak film. When both were brought together, somehow they did not gel as per my visualisation."

Why are we still in infancy when it comes to special effects despite having brains? "There is apprehension among film-makers too for very few dare do the impossible like Veeru does. He wanted certain scenes shot in such a way that was impossible in reality. So I made the scenes possible through realistic special effects." Are the Hindi-viewers ready for special effects? "Let me tell you an interesting episode. One person came to me and said: Sab kuchh achha laga, lekin yeh jo hawa main tairne ka scene hai, woh mujhe samajh main nahi aaya. He was referring to the sky-diving sequence. Imagine, this is what we get after having hired Hollywood's best sky-diving photographer, Norman Cant, for the scene.

But, yes, the satisfaction is there, that we tried our level best. Moreover, there is a dual aspect to it. For those who want special effects are those exposed to the satellite channels on which they see the latest and expect the same from us." So, Misha wants to improve and prove himself. And he has teamed up with Ajay for a children's film Raju Chacha. "It will have a lot of animation when the child goes into his imaginary world."