Mumbai, May 14, 2018: In a first-of-its kind academia-industry partnership, Asia’s premier Film, Commmunication and Creative Arts institute, Whistling Woods International (WWI), has come together with Reliance Jio for a Development Lab dedicated for the Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality industry. The lab, named ‘Whistling Woods Jio VR Lab’, will be set up at the Whistling Woods International campus in Filmcity, Mumbai. The Lab will commence operations in mid-May 2018.
The Lab will undertake several activities including building a state-of-the-art, always-current, technology pipeline for VR & AR workflows. The Lab will also play a meaningful role within the global VR community through its membership of the global VR Industry Forum and participation in global conclaves like NAB, IBC & CES. Further, the Lab will work with the Indian film & media industry in many ways including conducting monthly seminars & workshops for them as well as introducing new tech-workflows to the industry. The lab will undertake all these activities in a structured manner to create a curriculum for Cinematic VR, which will be taught to all students of WWI, making them India’s first generation of VR Filmmakers.
Speaking on the occasion, Jyotindra Thacker, President, Reliance Jio said that “We strongly believe VR will be the 4th content platform after Film, TV & Digital and this lab will create VR filmmakers who will kickstart India’s VR content ecosystem. Reliance Jio, through its leadership in the digital & content ecosystem, will support VR content creation & distribution and make cutting-edge experience available for its customers.”
Speaking about the new collaboration, Meghna Ghai Puri, President, Whistling Woods International said, “It gives us immense pleasure to have Reliance Jio as our strategic partner in launching the Virtual Reality Lab at our campus. Whistling Woods International has always been in the forefront to embrace and introduce latest technological & creative innovations in the Film, Media and Creative Arts domain and the Whistling Woods Jio VR Lab is yet another step in that direction. Today, WWI alumni are Film-ready, TV ready & Digital ready. Our goal is to make them VR ready as well. We see this as a first-step towards a larger engagement with Jio for future labs & content partnerships.”
About Whistling Woods International
Whistling Woods International is India’s premier Film, Communication and Media Arts institute. Founded by one of India’s leading filmmakers – Subhash Ghai, Whistling Woods International (WWI) is one of Asia’s largest Media Arts institutes. ‘The Hollywood Reporter’ has rated Whistling Woods International as one of the Ten Best Film Schools in the world in 2014, 2013 & 2010. WWI offers courses that vary in duration from 1 year to 3 years catering to all major verticals of the Media & Entertainment industry, namely Acting, Animation, Cinematography, Direction, Editing, Music, Producing, Screenwriting, Sound, Visual Effects, Media Management, Fashion Design and Visual Communication Design. All the courses are accredited to the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).