Hyderabad: This was a spectacular show - fit for a President to inaugurate. In the presence of 300 top global spiritual leaders, President Droupadi Murmu recently inaugurated a show, the likes of which had never been seen before. Mani Shankar’s cinematic projection mapping was at its awe-inspiring best at the Global Spiritual Mahotsav 2024 event at Kanha Shanti Vanam, under the aegis of Daaji the Spiritual Head of the Heartfulness movement.
‘Cinematic Mapping’ is an exhilarating concept invented and pioneered by Mani Shankar. His show generates a gigantic cinema feel enhanced by awe inspiring projection mapping. The net impact is stunning beyond words.
Watch: Global Spiritual Mahotsav Projection Mapping at Kanha
Being a Vedantic scholar, Mani effortlessly scripted a tale of how Indian spiritualism evolved over 5000 years of Indian history. A story rich in detail that still felt light and crisp. He peppered it with short Vedic verses that were visualised to perfection.
Superb dance choreography by Parshwant, who is among India’s best classical Dance choreographers, articulated abstract concepts of Vedanta with heart warming dexterity. Roshin and Sachin Balu composed a superb fusion classical music design.
Using her vast experience in visual arts, Anjali Joshi, as Director of AI design created a new metaphor of visual expression that was stunning to behold. She created landscapes, palaces, glacial lakes and scenery that would have been any visualisers dream come true.
The imagery was breathtaking, telling the viewers that AI is here with its powerful creative tools and is very much a part of cinema now.
The pixel resolutions told their own story. Filmmakers are nowadays used to filming on 6K or 8K using high end digital cine cameras. Mani’s cinematic mapping films are typically 7-10 times larger, and presented in 40-60K resolutions.
Mani used 16 hi-end projectors to get the kind of resolution he needed. The images were seamlessly stitched together by his expert team using edge blending- a technique of projection mapping.
Careful attention was given to colour harmony, leading to gasps from the audience.
“Ultimately I think it was the audacity of Anjali’s AI imagery blended with storytelling and incredible colour harmony that took your breath away” says Mani. “That was the jewel in the crown.”
Mani Shankar’s Versatile CareerWith a career spanning over 3 decades, Mani has carved a name for himself as a versatile film maker, script writer plus an engineer-inventor and tech embracing entrepreneur who is ready to push the envelope and take a risk into uncharted territory.
Apart from making 6 Bollywood films that include box office hits like ’16 December’ and ‘Tango Charlie’, Mani has also made over 3000 short films and ad films, music videos and image building campaigns.
He invented the world’s first mobile holographic unit and was the first to propel Holographic technology into political campaigning- for PM Narendra Modi’s Gujarat elections in 2012- earning a Guinness World Record that’s unbroken till date.
He was the first in the world to use Life sized Augmented Reality to create compelling smart phone-based holograms for political and spiritual leaders.
He is also the first to blend Holograms with AI and make smart holograms of celebrities you can casually converse with.
Indeed, even his first movie ’16 December’ released in 2002 was hailed as a film ahead of its time-with a complex screenplay and advanced special effects. ‘Tango Charlie’ Starring Ajay Devgn and Bobby Deol was a gritty brutal Anti-war film that questioned established axioms of jingoism and showed the true pathos of conflict.
How does one blend technology, storytelling and Vedantic philosophy? Mani effortlessly shifts gear.
“Art has been called ‘a gasp between two clichés”, he says. “Art needs a rebellious creativity that Vedantic thought has quietly fostered in India through the ages”.
How so?
“In Vedanta, Absolute Truth by definition cannot be expressed. This implies the last word can never be spoken. “
“So art becomes the way of expressing your current understanding of Truth. Like an open source code, it invites everyone to evolve in their own ways.”
“Think of it as a kind of satisfied dissatisfaction. Once you create something you feel like evolving to the next level. That’s how our core philosophy has kept us creatively alive as a nation.”
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