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Personality Portfolio / Dewang Mehta
Animated Artistry
The first Asian to bag the Computer Graphics Society of London award, Mehta blends science
with art.
Last December, when Dewang Mehta, the executive director of the National Association
of Software Companies, dined with the British Prime Minister John Major, he was not
on his usual selling binge. He was, in fact, receiving the coveted Man of the Year award
instituted by the Computer Graphics Society of London.
Mehta, incidentally, not only became the first Indian, but also the first Asian to receive
this award. And not without reasons. His highly successful nine-year-long stint in the
small world of documentary and advertising film makers has brought him the highest of
accolades. And the London award for his film “Wired” merely indicated the culmination
of his efforts to be a part of an exclusive club. Strangely, he was nominated for the award
not by any Indian, but the BBC.
Computer graphics is no more a strange turf for people dabbling in films. Gone are the
days when Walt Disney had to hand-paint each frame to create his characters like Mickey
Mouse and Donald Duck before he could lock them up in a cartoon strip. While it took
Disney up to a month to complete a film trip of a minute’s duration, Mehta can do it in
hours. All thanks to the rapid pace of technology, that has made graphics an essential tool
for film-makers.
Mehta, a chartered accountant, was obsessed with medicine at one time. But he made a
name and money in computer graphics, an area alien to him till about 1982.The advantage
he has over many of his contemporaries is his success in managing a blend of the scientific
and artistic disciplines. Today there are few who can doubt his ability to wave his hand
over a key board to produce colourful moving images on the screen.There are those who
are good in computer software. And there are others who excel in camera work. For Mehta,
it is a mix of both. He can not only stand behind a camera and discuss the framing of each
shot that is required, but can also sit on a computer and play around with the host of
graphics software.
His first introduction to computers was in 1982.Mehta hadmade a 20minute documentary
called “Glimpses of India”, which won an award at the Commonwealth Film Festival in
Leeds that year.While there to receive the award,Mehta was lucky to attract the attention
of none other than the computer graphics master, Alan Kitching. Over the years, Kitching
became Mehta’s guru.
Mehta’s association with Kitching also meant that quite a few doors that would have
otherwise remained closed, opened up even before he could start knocking at them.
The first big opportunity that came his way was an assignment from the world-famous
advertising company, Saatchi & Saatchi. But that was not until 1985.
Meanwhile, even though Mehta wanted to stay in Britain, he could not.The hitch being,
he had nothing to do. The only way out was to pursue academics while waiting for
the right break. Mehta enrolled himself for a course in management accountancy and
simultaneously got down to learn the basics of computer software. For subsistence, he took
up a cook’s job with the Wimpy’s food chain. He earned nearly £150 a week and tinkered
away with computers in his free time. He also never forgot to stay in touch with Kitching.
When Saatchi & Saatchi hired his services to do a 53-second British Airways ad titled the
“
Widest Seat in the Air”, Mehta knew his hard work had paid off.
While doing his accountancy and computers, Mehta had also got attracted to Fractals—
an advanced branch of Mathematics which plays a significant role in designing software
