- **Basilic Fly Studio is a visual effects (VFX) studio that turns raw footage into the dragons, alien worlds, and digital doubles you see on screen - it is the invisible hand behind blockbusters from *Avatar* to *The Last of Us*.** Founded in a small Chennai office in 2013 by three partners who split the roles of strategy, operations, and creative vision, the company has grown from a core team of 5-6 experienced artists into a full-service creative studio with over 775 employees across three continents. The recurring pattern is a deliberate climb up the value chain: start with the cost-efficient, high-volume work that builds trust and cash flow, then use that base to buy or build the creative front-end that wins premium clients and marquee projects. # Business segments A single VFX services engine, delivered through two complementary studios - an India-based production backbone and an acquired London-Paris creative front-end - that together cover the full creative spectrum from concept to final pixel. ## 1. End-to-end VFX services: the invisible factory behind the world's biggest screens **BFS takes a film or series from pre-visualisation through to final compositing, earning project fees from Hollywood studios and streaming platforms for work that audiences never realise is an effect.** - **Full creative spectrum under one roof** - the company handles pre-production concept work, on-set supervision, 3D asset creation, animation, creature effects, lighting, rendering, and final compositing, so a single project can stay within BFS from start to finish rather than being handed between vendors. - **Paid by the project, not the hour** - contracts are structured as either fixed-price or time-and-material agreements tied to scope and delivery timelines, with an increasing push toward direct contracts with studios rather than sub-contracting work from other VFX houses, which gives BFS more operational control and higher margins. - **The client list is the moat** - Netflix and Amazon together contribute over half of revenue, and the roster includes Disney, Sony, Warner Brothers, HBO, Paramount, Universal, Apple TV+, and the BBC, relationships that take years to build and are protected by stringent security certifications. - **Award-winning work that attracts more work** - credits include *Avatar: The Way of Water*, *John Wick 4*, *Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One*, *House of the Dragon*, and *The Mandalorian*, with BAFTA and Emmy nominations for projects like *The Matrix Resurrections* and *The Crown*, which serves as a calling card when pitching for the next blockbuster. - **Beyond film and TV** - roughly 30% of revenue comes from commercials for brands like Apple, Nike, and McDonald's, and the company has expanded into gaming cinematics and product modelling, including a previs project for a top-tier gaming company and hundreds of eyewear models per week for a product client. ## 2. The India-UK delivery engine: creative supervision in London, execution in Chennai **High-cost creative direction happens close to the client in London and Paris, while the labour-intensive production work runs through India, creating a structural cost advantage of roughly 30-40% over traditional single-location studios.** - **Two studios, one workflow** - the acquired One of Us (OOU) studio in London and Paris handles design-led concept work and high-end creative VFX with over 300 seasoned artists, while BFS hubs in Chennai (320+ employees) and Pune (130+ employees) execute the cost-intensive, high-volume production, all connected through a single integrated technology pipeline. - **Follow-the-sun production** - teams across India, Europe, and North America work simultaneously on the same assets using AWS-powered cloud workflows, so a shot handed off at the end of the London day is worked on overnight in India and ready for review the next morning, cutting turnaround times and enabling continuous productivity. - **The Bengaluru talent grab** - a new creative hub in Bengaluru was set up specifically to feed work to the UK subsidiary, hiring artists made available by the closure of competitors MPC and The Mill, with billing already commenced from October FY26. - **Bought, not just built** - acquiring OOU in July 2024 for a 70% stake gave BFS instant access to a BAFTA and Emmy-winning studio with a £20 million-plus order book, saving an estimated five to seven years of organic development time and over £10-15 million in setup costs that would have been needed to build equivalent creative credibility from scratch. # Technology and AI infrastructure **AI and pipeline technology are not a separate business but the productivity layer that runs across every project, compressing timelines and standardising quality across four countries.** - **AI already in live production** - proprietary AI-enabled workflows handle 4K de-aging, AI-assisted 3D generation, and high-fidelity texture creation on active projects, reducing post-shot costs and accelerating artist output, with every module integrated into the ShotGrid-connected pipeline with version control and quality gates. - **A phased roadmap to AI-native production** - the company has a three-phase plan running through FY28 that moves from foundation tools like ML-driven scheduling and a generative AI pipeline (both already live) to a target of film-grade, 16-bit AI integration across the full pipeline and an AI-native production model for select projects. - **Universal Scene Description pipeline** - investment in a USD-based workflow lets multiple departments work on the same shot simultaneously rather than sequentially, reducing handoff delays and improving version control, with the company shifting towards a USD-native pipeline architecture enabling a 15% faster turnaround in asset sharing. - **Joint AI lab with One of Us** - a shared AI/ML lab is being established to advance pipeline integration across both studios, leveraging the UK-India Enhanced Trade Partnership, with a dedicated AI Lab also planned in London. # Group structure and partners **BFS is an Indian-listed parent with wholly owned subsidiaries in Canada and the UK, the latter holding a 70% stake in the award-winning One of Us studio - a structure designed to put a local face in front of Hollywood clients while keeping the production engine in India.** - **Listed parent with international subsidiaries** - Basilic Fly Studio Limited is listed on NSE Emerge in India, with wholly owned subsidiaries in Vancouver (incorporated 2021) and London (incorporated 2022), the London entity having acquired the 70% stake in One of Us Limited in July 2024. - **One of Us as the creative crown jewel** - the step-down subsidiary operates from London and Paris, had a turnover of £29.42 million as of December 2023, and is led by its three co-founders who each bring over 30 years of industry experience, with a BFS-appointed director added to the board as of March 2026. - **Technology partners underpin the global pipeline** - AWS provides the cloud infrastructure for real-time collaboration and secure asset sharing across time zones, while NetApp hardens the storage backbone that handles blockbuster-level data volumes. - **Client relationships are concentrated and deep** - over 80% of revenue comes from Europe and North America, with Netflix and Amazon alone accounting for more than half, and the company also serves as an outsourcing partner to other global VFX studios when capacity or specialist skills are needed.