Abhijit Kokate, Taking Bollywood by Storm. Award-Winning Indian Filmmaker Breaks New Ground in Film Editing with Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Adobe Customer Story

Abhijit Kokate, taking Bollywood by storm. Award-winning Indian filmmaker breaks new ground in film editing with Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

Abhijit Kokate

“One thing is for sure, whatever work that I or my company will do, Adobe Creative Cloud, especially Adobe Premiere Pro CC, will be an integral part of every venture.” Abhijit Kokate, Editor

SOLUTION RESULTS Adobe Creative Cloud

FASTER WORKFLOW BUSINESS VENTURE EFFECTS EXPERTISE CUSTOMIZED TOOLS Accelerate video editing Launched company Easily incorporate high-end Personalize editing interface workflow by working with focused on video graphics into editing workflow and keyboard shortcuts to raw camera formats without production, including without rendering save time transcoding editing and visual effects Adobe Customer Story

Abhijit Kokate India www.kaichiproductions.com

CHALLENGES • Grow expertise in film editing • Demonstrate value of Adobe workflow to editing community • Simplify integration of visual effects • Work faster with raw footage

Hindi film industry pioneer Abhijit Kokate is an Indian film editor and director in Bollywood. He is most known for his films Not a Love Story, Department, and the highly-applauded Queen. As early as 2013, he embraced Adobe Creative Cloud, especially Adobe Premiere Pro CC, for all of his film editing and post-production work. Kokate believes that the one key factor that contributes to his success, both from an editing and a film point of view, is working with Adobe Premiere Pro CC. Adobe: Tell us about your background and how you got started in this industry. Kokate: I was involved in theatre during my school and college days but I never dreamed of making a career in film editing or directing. When I was in London doing my Master’s in law, I had watched the world cinema and realized the profound impact that a film can have on a worldwide audience. Then came the Indian blockbuster film Rang De Basanti, which changed my life. I discovered that cinema is a great medium to tell your story and positively impact the lives of people. I quickly realized that this was the direction I wanted to go. Adobe: Did you receive an education in film editing or are you self-taught? Kokate: Although I decided that I wanted to make films, I didn’t have any family background in filmmaking and I really didn’t know the correct starting point. So like a lot of my peers, I started pursuing admission to filmmaking institutes in India. I enrolled in FX School, one of the leading institutes in animation, visual effects, and digital filmmaking. This is where I started learning the art and craft behind film editing. Adobe Customer Story

Through FX School, while the coursework was still ongoing, I got an opportunity to work with Ramgopal Verma, one of the leading Bollywood filmmakers, on the trailer for his film Not a Love Story. I knew this could be the opportunity of a lifetime. I worked day and night on the trailer and after a week I showed him my work. He was so impressed that he asked me to join his film studio, RGV Film Factory, as an assistant editor. I learned the finer aspects of film editing on the job from Ramgopal Verma. He also offered me the opportunity to work on more films such as Department and Ab Tak Chhappan 2. From there, things took off for me as people saw my work and hired me for other jobs. Adobe: Tell us about what you are doing now and the projects you are working on. Kokate: Most recently, I’ve worked with Phantom Films editing many of their films. I am currently working on Tere Bin Laden 2. I also directed an adventure travel show with actress and model Gul Panag entitled Off Road with Gul Panag for Discovery Channel. “I became addicted to the ability to ingest almost any raw camera In addition, I’ve started my own venture, Kaichi Productions, which is currently focusing on developing content for films, such as visual promotions and theatrical trailers, and making the films themselves. format in Premiere Pro CC without transcoding and its integration with Adobe: Did you recently switch to Adobe Premiere Pro CC or have you been using Adobe software since the other Adobe programs, including beginning? Adobe After Effects CC and Adobe Kokate: I started my film editing career with Adobe Premiere Pro software. While working at RGV Film Photoshop CC.” Factory, I was introduced to Premiere Pro CC. I was excited to experience something new with a different workflow, so I tried it, and really loved it. Abhijit Kokate, Editor I became addicted to the ability to ingest almost any raw camera format in Premiere Pro CC without transcoding and its integration with other Adobe programs, including Adobe After Effects CC and Adobe Photoshop CC. I also liked the flexibility of Premiere Pro CC. Today, I can shoot on the latest high-end digital cameras and simultaneously start the editing work without waiting for things to be ready to edit. The user interface is very familiar and intuitive and is much more stable than other similar software, such as Final Cut Pro. It is indeed a joy to use Premiere Pro CC. Adobe: How do you use Premiere Pro CC in your day-to-day work? Kokate: The editing work typically begins with obtaining footage of the film shoots. Often, the footage received in 4K HD format needs to be converted to 2K or ProRes format. With Premiere Pro CC, there is no need for transcoding and I can extract the footage directly on the timeline. Adobe Customer Story “One more thing that I immediately Adobe: What are key features in Premiere Pro CC that you particularly like? liked about Premiere Pro is the Kokate: I look at Premiere Pro as a one-stop-shop for completing all my post-production work. I love its user interface, because everything ability to support a ton of high-end graphics and seamlessly incorporate effects from After Effects. With is where you expect it to be. It’s the graphics card on my computer, I can throw 10 or more effects at the Premiere Pro timeline through really intuitive to move something Dynamic Link, and I don’t have to wait around to render anything. Everything is elegant and ready to go. from one position to another, The multicam capabilities of Premiere Pro are just amazing. The software works with multiple digital drag and drop, and rearrange formats without transcoding. There is absolutely no need to lose days to sync issues or rendering, going through every shot and knocking it into sync. With Premiere Pro, the footage can be directly placed on everything however you wish timeline. So, it’s possible to deliver high-quality work in less time. thanks to the customizable editing interface.” One more thing that I immediately liked about Premiere Pro is the user interface, because everything is where you expect it to be. It’s really intuitive to move something from one position to another, drag and drop, and Abhijit Kokate, Editor rearrange everything however you wish thanks to the customizable editing interface. Premiere Pro CC also has lovely little keyboard shortcuts that save significant editing time. Adobe: You have received accolades and awards for your editing work for the filmQueen . Did you edit the film using Premiere Pro CC? Kokate: I edited Queen totally on Premiere Pro CC. In fact, it was the first film at Phantom Films to be edited using Premiere Pro. No one in the film editing unit had ever used the solution. When I started editing the film using Premiere Pro software, the team was a little cautious about the usefulness of the Adobe workflow. But in a matter of just three or four days, they were so used to Premiere Pro that we completed the editing of the film in record time. Adobe: Can you cite a few of the challenging editing assignments in your career and how Premiere Pro helped you in tackling those challenges? Kokate: The editing of the filmDepartment was one of the most challenging tasks I have ever had in my editing career. The film was shot on 10 DSLRs and I got nearly 6TB of footage, which was about 50 hours in length. No loggers or clappers were used making the job of editing even more difficult. Premiere Pro CC helped me in efficient extraction and rendering of footage without needing to convert the format. Another challenging assignment was the editing and direction of the TV travel show Off Road with Gul Panag. It was an extemporaneous show with multiple cameras taking the shots, and it needed to be edited quickly because of tight deadlines. Premiere Pro CC gave me the necessary flexibility to simultaneously shoot and edit the show to meet the deadlines. Adobe Customer Story

SOLUTION AT A GLANCE Adobe: Will you continue using Adobe Premiere Pro for film editing? • Adobe Creative Cloud. Apps used include: Kokate: As editors, we are always looking out for the best tools. After using Adobe Premiere Pro, I can’t • Adobe Premiere Pro CC imagine not using it. I tell people what a great time I had editing films such as Queen and how easy • Adobe After Effects CC Premiere Pro CC is compared to other software that I’ve used. • Adobe Photoshop CC Ultimately, filmmaking is about complex problem-solving. So, to solve complex problems you need an intuitive • Adobe Audition CC and user friendly tool. Adobe is providing such tools to solve more complex problems, much faster. And that helps me create better, more gripping films with fewer resources. Adobe: Are you starting to see more editors using Premiere Pro CC in the industry? Kokate: Multiple production houses in Bollywood have started to use Premiere Pro along with other Adobe tools such as After Effects for compositing, text animation, and other effects and Adobe Audition CC for audio touch-ups. I strongly feel that in the next few years, the adoption of Premiere Pro CC will grow much faster. Adobe: What is next for you? Kokate: While Kaichi Productions will continue to work on film editing related assignments, I have already started working on my own film as the director. That was my dream when I entered this field. I think that’s the best way I will be able to tell my stories. One thing is for sure, whatever work that I or my company will do, Adobe Creative Cloud, especially Premiere Pro CC, will be an integral part of every venture.

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