MUMBAI, India — Outsourcing to India, long dominated by software-engineering and back-office work, is expanding into new terrain: special effects for movies.
Executives in India say cost pressures are pushing studios to send more work to India, where special-effects projects are up to 40 percent cheaper than in the U.S., although Indian shops are, for now, minor players.
Hollywood’s special-effects industry is still dominated by such U.S. companies as Industrial Light & Magic. Production standards are generally lower in India, and many moviemakers won’t send creative work thousands of miles away.
But the distance between Hollywood and Bollywood is narrowing, and many say it’s only a matter of time before the gap in skills, trust and quality is closed.
