Meet the Indian behind Oscar-nominated VFX of Dune Part Two; designed visual effects for Interstellar, Tenet, Ex Machina
Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two did not just set the box office on fire with its $714 million gross, but also wowed the critics.
Its five nominations at the 2025 Oscars testify to that. Among these is the nomination in the Best Visual Effects category. Spearheading that for Villeneuve is DNEG, an Indian visual effects company that has won seven Oscars already. Ahead of the Academy Awards next week, Namit Khanna, CEO of DNEG, talks to HT about the chances of a win, the debate about CGI vs practical effects, and how the Indian VFX scene is catching up to Hollywood.
On Oscar nomination and chances of win
Namit calls it an honour just to be nominated but still wants to win. “It’s not like the other films that didn’t make it to the final five weren’t still cutting edge. So it’s hard to say why this one was selected and why that one was not. It’s not because nothing is missing in its finesse or quality for it not to get there. And that is why it becomes very good that you made it to that final cut amongst them,” he says. But ask him how confident he is of a win, and the prompt reply is: “I’m incredibly confident.”
Namit says that he has begun to understand how the Academy looks at visual effects, which differs from how many viewers do. He explains, “They’re not just giving Oscars away for what’s the biggest film or the biggest visual effect. They’re really thinking about how it enhances the quality of storytelling, and not necessarily like a showcase of, ‘oh, look at how cool we can do cool stuff’.”
DNEG has been behind the Oscar-winning VFX of films like Inception, Interstellar, Ex Machina, Blade Runner 2049, First Man, Tenet and Dune. Seven Oscars in a decade is no mean feat. When asked what he and DNEG are doing right, Namit responds, “Simply put, we are the director’s best friend. You take the director’s vision with the greatest amount of sincerity and translate that vision into a shot. Whether we work with you, Christopher Nolan (in Interstellar), or Denis here (in Dune), what you’re taking is really filmmaking genius, taking their vision and really just plugging it with everything that we’ve got and no limitation.”
Balancing CGI and practical effects
There has been a lot of debate among moviegoers and industry insiders about filmmakers’ over-reliance on CGI effects. Many filmmakers – led by Nolan – are increasingly resorting to practical effects. Talking about his stance on this debate, Namit says, “I’ll give you a slightly different example, but I think something that is very relatable. In the music world, people can argue that you’ve got electronic instruments that create a certain sound, but you also have analogue instruments. If you ask a purist, they’ll say the analogue sounds way better than the digital. But as far as I’m concerned, I’m not here trying to pick the instrument. I’m trying to listen to the experience of the orchestra. Whether you use analogue instruments, you use digital instruments, or you use both, it doesn’t matter. What matters is whether I enjoyed the music. Visual Effects is the same thing. Whether you do something practically or you do something digitally, whether it’s been on a computer, whether it’s a miniature, whether you actually went to shoot on set, in the end, what matters is that the visual connects with you, makes you feel immersed.”
The VFX scene in Indian cinema
It has often been said that visual effects in Indian cinema are lagging far behind Hollywood, but Namit has a different take. He says, “In 1975, India made Sholay, and in 1977, Hollywood made Star Wars. These were the two big cinematic moments in the history of these countries. After Star Wars, Hollywood became spectacle-oriented. You had more Star Wars movies, Jurassic Park, and The Terminator. All these great filmmakers used the power of visual effects to push their stories. India went from Sholay to action movies to the romantic era. So, our catching up on relative paces has been huge because we were just going in a different direction. If Hollywood was going north, we were going east.”
He says that the rate of progress has increased now. “In fact, we are leapfrogging, jumping way faster now. Obviously, there’s still ways to catch up,” he says, adding, “In the next five to seven years, I believe that we’ll be at a place where we are not going to be distinguishing between Hollywood and India. The positive change is that nobody’s ever coming to us today in the industry in India, saying, ‘Take less money and do a quick job’.”