Visual effects guru gets an India link

Tim Sassoon is internationally regarded as a pioneer in high-resolution stero-imagery.

His visual effects in films like Alice in Wonderland,Spartan and Aviator evoked an awesome response from people. On Wednesday morning,it was the turn of visual effects guru and creative director of Sassoon Film Studio,USA,Tim Sassoon,to experience awe,as he bent to touch the inscription on a plaque on the hospital his ancestor had helped build.

He said it was an awesome moment. He could not but feel humbled that an ancestor was instrumental in helping build the government hospital,which takes care of 1,200 patients. He is one of the fifth descendants in the family tree of Jewish philanthropist David Sassoon,who had made a generous contribution to the construction of the Sassoon General Hospital in 1867.

Everyone is so dedicated here, says Sassoon who also donated US 10,000 to the hospital and hoped the grant would be matched by other benefactors from the city.

Sassoon visited the Society of Friends of Sassoon General Hospitals childcare centre and found it an amazing place before heading to the building built first on the campus and presently houses the departments of ophthalmology,psychiatry,chest and respiratory medicine and the Maharashtra Institute of Mental Health. We are urgently in need of a lift in the building and hopefully can install one with this grant, said Dr Renu Bharadwaj,dean of B J Medical College and Sassoon General hospital.

Tim Sassoon is internationally regarded as a pioneer in high-resolution stero-imagery and is here for a tie-up with Tata Elxsi Ltd,a technology company with the Tata Group in India,to collaborate on a project that can convert 2D images to stereoscopic 3D films. We are working on films like Harry Potter and others, he said,adding,that productions are on the last leg. At a meeting with college teachers who gathered at the hall,Sassoon spoke of his penchant for creating artificial dreams. We need to dream for a living, he told a hall full of medicos and narrated how he had pre-cognitive dreams that led him to strongly question the here and the now.

I had a dream when I went to California that I broke up with a girl at a large hall. Later my mother who wanted me to excel in studies gave me a college catalogue that had the picture of the hallway and it led me to the California institute of Arts where I did meet this girl and broke up, he told them. Sassoon,who is on a weeklong tour of Pune,Mumbai and Bangalore also visited Ohel David Synagogue,where his forefather was also buried.