No barrier we Indians cannot breach: Namit Malhotra on Dune VFX win

Denis Villeneuve's Dune won six Oscars on Monday morning, including Best Visual Effects. Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, Brian Connor and Gerd Nefzer were honoured for the stunning VFX work led by London-based effects and animation house DNEG. 

This is the seventh Oscar that DNEG (formerly Double Negative) has won. They'd previously won for Tenet (2021), First Man (2019), Blade Runner 2049 (2018), Ex Machina (2016), Interstellar (2015) and Inception (2011).

Besides Dune, DNEG was also nominated for No Time To Die in the same category at this year's Oscars. 

Indian-origin Namit Malhotra is the chairman and CEO of DNEG. Raised in Mumbai, Namit is the son of Bollywood producer Naresh Malhotra and grandson of cinematographer MN Malhotra.

Speaking about the Oscars victory, Namit said, "Dune has set a new benchmark for what visual effects can mean for storytelling in cinema. I believe there will be conversations in terms of ‘pre Dune’ and ‘post Dune’ in terms of what we do in the arena of visual effects, in the coming years. I am grateful to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for this Award and these nominations and proud to see our team at DNEG receiving this laurel.

When I think that this is DNEG’s 7th Academy Award in the Visual Effects Category, it gives me great pride as its CEO and Chairman, and as an Indian. I started out in this business from a garage in Mumbai and I had to start from scratch in Hollywood. Now I feel there is no barrier that we Indians cannot breach.”

Dune also won for Best Sound, Best Original Score (Hans Zimmer), Best Film Editing, Best Production Design and Best Cinematography (Greig Fraser) at the 94th Academy Awards.