India's Prime Focus gets 'Avatar' boost

Shares in India's Prime Focus jumped 10% on news it received USD 5 million for contributing visual effects to Hollywood's 3-D sci-fi extravaganza, Avatar, which opened this weekend worldwide.

The film, one of the most expensive ever made with a reported budget of at least USD 300 million, paints an eco-friendly tale set in a mineral-rich alien land characterised by visual flourishes such as dragon-like birds, glowing trees, floating mountains and blue-bodied people.

"We contributed about 10% of the visual effects for Avatar," Namit Malhotra, who founded Prime Focus as a 21-year-old more than a decade ago, told Reuters by telephone.

The film, which has won rave reviews and is being hailed as a giant leap in cinematic prowess, raked in an estimated USD 232.2 million from North America and 106 foreign markets in its first weekend - provisionally the ninth-biggest opening of all time.

That fell short of the USD 275 million opening for The Twilight Saga: New Moon last month, but Malhotra has reason to smile as he said his firm had contributed almost 80% of the visual effects for the teen vampire romance.

"We got about USD 4 million for our work in New Moon," said Malhotra, whose grandfather was a cinematographer and father was a producer in India's Bollywood film industry.

At 0835 GMT on Monday, shares in Prime Focus were up 10% at Rs 252.75 - their highest level in more than six months and lifting the company's market value to near USD 70 million - in a Mumbai market down 0.4%.

Bollywood business

Prime Focus, which had started in a garage in Mumbai, made a profit of Rs 3.2 crore ($690,000) in the September quarter.

Prime Focus' credits include recent major Bollywood releases Paa, starring 68-year-old superstar Amitabh Bachchan as a 13-year-old school boy, Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year, and Wake Up Sid, both featuring current heartthrob Ranbir Kapoor.

"This is our home ground. We will continue to grow and expand here," said Malhotra, who studied computer graphics before founding the firm but learnt most of his skills on the job.

He credits Michael Fink, who won an Academy Award for his work on 2007's fantasy tale The Golden Compass, for helping catch the eye of the Avatar team, helmed by Titanic director James Cameron. Fink is Prime Focus' president of visual effects.

"Michael Fink is a veteran, and his credibility and skill brings a lot of work to us," Malhotra said.

Malhotra said more Hollywood projects were in the offing, but declined to give details because of confidentiality agreements.

"We will work on up to five movies in 2010," he said.

Avatar was back by News Corp's 20th Century Fox studio.