Guess who’s coming to Padmavati’s rescue? Bollywood’s superhero Singham! Sources say co-producers Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Viacom 18 are indirectly using Ajay Devgn’s VFX studio, NY VFXWAALA – The VFX People, to convert their period drama into 3D format before its December 1 release.

The studio, a division of Ajay Devgn Films, has worked on the VFX of several Bollywood films including Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Tamasha, Bajirao Mastani, Dilwale and Force2. Now it’s working on Padmavati for the past fortnight with the aim of delivering startling visuals that will leave Bhansali’s audience awestruck worldwide. Paramount Pictures, the film’s international distributor, reportedly encouraged Bhansali to go 3D after falling in love with Padmavati’s trailer.

The question doing the rounds is will the film, which is reportedly in its last stage of shooting, be converted from 2D format to 3D in time for its scheduled release? Peeping Moon.com sources reveal that Bhansali has over 3,000 multi-skilled professionals working on the job. Part of this team is employed by Prime Focus, another major VFX studio in Mumbai, which then kept a small part of the plum assignment with itself and gave the bulk of the responsibility to Devgn’s studio.

How challenging is the job? Prime Focus is doing just 10 minutes of the VFX. For which it is using 2,000 artistes and will require 20 man-days (1 man-day = 8 hours) to complete a single shot. Only then will the VFX shot have A-level Hollywood quality. However, Bollywood filmmakers do tend to compromise and settle for lesser B-level quality because this is finished in lesser number of days. Software called Nuke and Fusion are used in the process of creating an illusion but it still needs a lot of manpower to do the work. Meanwhile, Devgn’s studio is believed to have outsourced the 3D work to about 70 vendors operating in Mumbai, Pune and other cities.