(A/N):
Drop a here that you find funny. Or reflects your mood.
Guys I hope you put more comnts and power stones... Which will encourage ...
....
A year passed....
Twelve months.
Three hundred and sixty-five days.
For most people, it wasn't a long ti.
For Karuppu, it felt like he had lived an entirely different life.
California had beco his second ho.
More specifically, he was staying in a hostay arrangent in Burbank, California.
Burbank was one of the best places for a student interested in film and visual effects.
The city sat in the shadow of Hollywood itself.
Production houses.
Animation studios.
Visual effects companies.
Film schools.
Everything existed within driving distance.
Many acting, animation, and film students rented rooms through hostays or shared housing while pursuing their education there.
When Karuppu had first arrived, the change had been overwhelming even for him.
Different culture.
Different food.
Different weather.
Different people.
The first month had been the hardest.
But eventually he adapted.
Now he could comfortably navigate the city.
Use public transportation.
Handle college assignnts.
Order food.
Deal with local people.
And even survive without Lakshmi's cooking.
Though according to his mother, that last point remained debatable.
Unlike India, where people recognized him from Aadhavan, things were very different here.
Most people didn't know him.
To them, he wasn't an actor.
Not a cricketer.
Not a celebrity.
He was simply another student.
And honestly... Karuppu enjoyed it well.
There was sothing refreshing about walking through a campus without caras following him.
No interviews. No reporters.
No industry gossip.
Just classes.
Projects.
Assignnts.
Late-night studying.
And because nobody knew him, he found himself focusing on things he normally never had ti for.
Especially technology.
His System had changed considerably over the past year.
One evening, while sitting in his room after finishing a programming assignnt, he opened his status window.
[STATUS WINDOW
Na: Karuppan Sivakumar
Age: 19
Traits:
Photogenic mory
Mischief Demon
Future of Indian Cricket
Actor...]1
[Coding Branch (Unlocked)
Coding: 4
Sub Branches:
Java: 6
Python: 6
Java Script: 6
C : 6
Cinema Branch:
Acting: 9
Screen Writing: 8
VFX: 4
Sub Branches:
CGI (Computer Generated Imagery): 4
Compositing: 4
Motion Capture: 4
Technical Points Available: 16.]
Karuppu stared at the panel.
He had deliberately refused to spend points on VFX.
At first glance, that sounded strange.
Most people would've imdiately dumped points into the new branch.
But Karuppu wasn't interested in becoming soone who rely possessed knowledge.
He wanted understanding.
He wanted experience first. Then enhancent.
Just as he had done with cricket.
So instead of spending points recklessly, he spent the year learning.
Really learning.
The VFX industry itself was undergoing a massive transformation.
Many of his professors discussed it frequently.
Traditional practical effects were slowly losing ground.
Not disappearing.
But losing dominance.
Production houses increasingly trusted CGI.
For one simple reason.
Money.
A practical monster suit might take weeks to build.
A CGI creature could be modified endlessly.
A miniature city required physical construction.
A digital city could be altered with a few clicks.
Explosions.
Creatures.
Fantasy worlds.
Alien invasions.
Digital doubles.
Everything was becoming increasingly dependent on computers.
The industry was entering what many experts called the beginning of the CGI-dominant era.
Karuppu found the subject fascinating.
"...."
Particularly CGI creation.
Creating entire worlds from nothing.
The process amazed him.
A dragon that never existed.
A city that was never built.
A battlefield with thousands of soldiers who were actually lines of code.
It felt like magic.
The CGI branch covered:
3D Modeling Texturing
Lighting Digital
Asset Creation
Creature Design
Environnt Creation
The Compositing branch focused on combining multiple visual elents into one seamless fra.
Green screens.
Blue screens.
Digital backgrounds.
Layer integration.
Color correction.
The truly invisible work that audiences never noticed when done correctly.
Then ca Motion Capture.
Perhaps Karuppu's favorite.
The process fascinated both the actor and the technician inside him.
An actor's movents.
Expressions.
Body language.
Converted into digital data.
Mapped onto a completely different character.
A giant monster.
A fantasy creature.
An alien.
Yet sohow the human performance remained underneath.
The more he studied, the more he understood how much cinema was about to change.
And because of that realization, a dream slowly started forming in his mind.
Not rely becoming an actor.
Not rely becoming a cricketer.
Not even becoming a VFX artist.
He wanted to build sothing.
A studio.
A place where Indian cinema could create visual effects equal to anything Hollywood produced.
The thought remained distant.
Almost impossible.
Even through his family owns a production house.
But every day he spent studying pushed that dream slightly closer.
Outside his hostay room, California's evening lights glowed.
Cars moved along the streets below.
Students returned from classes.
The city never truly slept.
Karuppu closed his laptop and leaned back in his chair.
One year ago he had arrived here as a curious student.
Now he was beginning to understand the future.
And the future, from what he could see, belonged to those who could combine storytelling with technology.
A slow smile appeared on his face.
Because for the first ti since arriving in Arica...
He felt he wasn't rely studying the future of cinema.
He was preparing to build it with his hands.
The quiet evening inside Karuppu's hostay room was interrupted by a familiar knock.
Not the cautious knock of a landlord.
-Knock! -Knock! -Knock!
-Knock! -Knock!
Not the hurried knock of a delivery driver.
A very specific knock.
Three quick taps.
Pause.
Then two more.
Karuppu imdiately smiled.
"Door's open!"
he shouted.
A second later the door swung open.
Standing there were two familiar faces.
Kristen Stewart.
And Adelaide Kane.
Between them was enough takeaway food to feed an entire study group.
"Move."
Kristen declared seeing him opening the door very late.
"We co bearing food."
Karuppu imdiately stood aside.
"Truly the greatest friendship."
"Not friendship."
Adelaide corrected with a chuckle.
"Charity."
"That's even better."
The two girls entered.
Over the past months, this had beco surprisingly normal.
Six Months Before...
Six months ago, the room opposite Karuppu's had beco vacant.
Shortly afterward, two acting students moved in.
One was Adelaide Kane.
The Australian actress who had co to California to further develop her acting skills and network within the industry.
The other was Kristen Stewart.
Already familiar with fa thanks to her growing career but still attending specialized acting workshops and training programs between projects.
The funny thing was Adelaide had recognized Karuppu almost imdiately.
Not because of movies.
Because of cricket.
The mont she heard his na, her brain connected the dots.
Then she spent half an hour staring at him.
"...."
Which naturally made Karuppu uncomfortable.
Finally he had asked.
"Do I have sothing on my face?"
Adelaide had imdiately replied.
"You hit Flintoff for thirty-two runs."
The statent ca so suddenly that Karuppu nearly choked on his coffee.
Hearing it after nearly a year.
That was how their friendship started.
Later she watched Aadhavan out of curiosity which was released in Australia.
Then sohow beca a fan of that too.
Which only gave her more reasons to bother him.
At first their interactions were simple neighbor greetings.
Good morning.
Good evening.
Need help carrying groceries?
Have you seen the mail?
Then Adelaide started talking.
And talking. And talking.
Eventually Kristen got dragged into the conversations too.
Over ti they beca genuine friends.
Helping each other with assignnts.
Sharing als.
Reviewing projects.
Complaining about deadlines.
The usual student life.
Tonight seed no different.
The girls dropped several takeaway bags onto the table.
Burger boxes.
French fries.
Soft drinks.
Karuppu stared at it.
"How much food did you buy?"
"Enough."
Kristen answered hearing where he was going.
"That's not a quantity."
"It is today."
Adelaide imdiately stole one of the fries.
Then pointed dramatically.
"We just survived three auditions."
"Two auditions."
Kristen corrected her friend.
"The third one doesn't count."
"It counts emotionally."
Karuppu laughed each their intraction.
The three quickly settled around the small table.
The room filled with the sll of burgers and fries.
For a while nobody spoke.
Pure survival mode.
Then Adelaide finally pointed at him.
"So."
Karuppu imdiately frowned.
"I don't like that tone."
"You never told us you were famous in movie industry in India."
Kristen nodded her head where Karuppu showed her how Indians celebrate movies through youtube clips.
"That's still weird."
Karuppu sighed hearing the two look at him like he was a rare specin.
Six months later and they still occasionally brought it up.
"I'm not that famous."
Both girls stared at how he tries to act modest.
They would have believed him if wasn't for the smirk on the corner of his mouth.
Adelaide slowly pulled out her phone.
Opened a video.
Displayed a stadium full of screaming fans.
Then showed Karuppu hitting a massive six.
"Explain this."
"I got lucky."
Kristen imdiately threw a french fry at him.
"Nobody gets lucky fifty-two runs in fourteen balls."
Adelaide nodded enthusiastically.
-Nod!
"Exactly."
Karuppu decided not to defend himself.
Experience had taught him it was pointless.
The conversation quickly shifted elsewhere.
Acting classes.
Auditions.
Film projects.
Industry rumors.
California life.
At one point Adelaide asked about India.
Then about Indian films.
Then about cricket.
Then sohow back to cricket.
Always back to cricket.
Kristen finally groaned.
"You realize he does other things besides cricket, right?"
Adelaide pointed at Karuppu.
"He hit Flintoff."
"You're obsessed."
"A little."
"A lot."
"Maybe."
Karuppu nearly laughed himself off the chair.
As the evening continued, the conversation beca increasingly ridiculous.
At so point Adelaide challenged him to teach them cricket.
Kristen imdiately rejected the idea.
"I like my windows intact."
Karuppu nodded seriously.
"Smart decision."
"See?"
Kristen said with a pleased smile on her face.
"Even he agrees."
The room erupted into laughter.
Outside, California's evening lights glowed beyond the window.
Inside, three students sat around a cluttered table filled with empty burger wrappers and half-finished drinks.
An Australian.
An Arican.
And an Indian.
Brought together by nothing more than coincidence.
Yet sohow, over the past year, they had beco one of the brightest parts of Karuppu's life in California.
And as the conversation continued late into the night, Karuppu realized sothing.
Arica no longer felt quite so far away from ho anymore.
During that ti, life had moved forward on multiple fronts.
His second IPL season had co and gone.
Once again, Mumbai Indians had fought deep into the tournant before eventually falling in Qualifier 2.
Though the team couldn't lift the trophy, Karuppu's reputation continued to rise.
His fearless batting.
His athletic fielding.
His ability to contribute with the ball.
Everything pointed toward a bright future.
Yet whenever cricket discussions happened, one particular mont always resurfaced.
Andrew Flintoff.
That final over.
Four consecutive sixes.
The 103-ter hit.
The 104-ter hit.
The carnage.
The clip continued to circulate among cricket fans.
Sports channels still occasionally replayed it.
Comntators still referenced it.
What had started as a brilliant IPL debut innings had slowly beco one of the tournant's legendary monts.
anwhile, on the cinema side, sothing equally important was approaching.
January 2011.
The release month of 13B.
Nearly two years had passed since the film was shot.
Post-production.
Visual effects.
Distribution agreents.
International release planning.
Everything had taken ti.
Now the movie was finally ready.
A few weeks before release, the official trailer dropped on YouTube.
Within hours, it beca a trending topic.
Because nobody had expected this.
The audience rembered Karuppu from Aadhavan.
A fun comrcial entertainer.
Action.
Cody.
Mass monts.
Songs.
Heroism.
But 13B looked completely different.
The trailer opened with silence.
"...."
"...."
"...."
A family moving into a new apartnt.
Then strange events.
A television.
A daily serial.
Things that shouldn't be possible.
Yet sohow were.
The trailer avoided jump scares.
Instead it focused on atmosphere.
Unease.
Mystery.
Fear.
The audience imdiately noticed.
"This isn't a mass movie."
"This is a proper horror thriller."
"The story looks interesting."
"Why does that television feel creepy?"
Comnts flooded social dia and forums.
More importantly... Theaters were willing to take the risk.
And for one reason.
Aadhavan.
The success of Karuppu's debut film had changed everything.
The international theater chains that had previously ignored smaller South Indian productions were now willing to give screen space.
Especially in regions where Aadhavan had perford strongly.
Malaysia.
Singapore.
Middle East.
Australia.
United Kingdom.
United States.
Distribution beca significantly easier.
anwhile Indian news channels began inviting trade analysts.
Every channel had a different prediction.
One analyst argued with the states in his hands...
"Horror films traditionally have a lower ceiling than mass entertainers."
Another imdiately disagreed.
"Not if the content is strong."
A third pointed at the production budget.
"The budget is approximately 27 crores."
"If the film crosses 150 crores, it's already a massive success."
Others were even more optimistic.
"If word of mouth becos strong, 250 to 300 crores is possible."
"Anything beyond that depends entirely on audience reception."
Compared to Aadhavan's enormous worldwide collection, those numbers seed smaller.
But the trade experts quickly explained why that comparison was unfair.
Aadhavan was a large-scale comrcial entertainer.
13B was a horror thriller.
The economics were completely different.
If a 27-crore horror film crossed even 250 crores worldwide...
It would be considered one of the biggest successes in Indian cinema.
anwhile in California, Karuppu watched all this unfold from thousands of kiloters away.
His phone constantly buzzed.
Calls from Suriya.
Calls from Aishwarya.
Calls from Mahendran.
Calls from Darshan.
Even Adelaide Kane sohow found the trailer.
She burst into his room one evening carrying her laptop.
"YOU NEVER TOLD YOU MADE A HORROR MOVIE."
Karuppu nearly dropped his coffee.
"Why are you shouting?"
"Because this looks creepy!"
A few seconds later Kristen appeared behind her.
Holding popcorn.
"She's been watching the trailer repeatedly."
"I am conducting research."
"You're scaring yourself."
"I know."
The two girls imdiately sat down and forced Karuppu to explain the plot.
Which he refused to do.
Leading to twenty minutes of increasingly ridiculous theories.
Back in India, however, expectations continued to rise.
Because the more people watched the trailer...
The more one thing beca clear.
This wasn't a film relying on hero worship.
It wasn't relying on punch dialogues.
It wasn't relying on fights.
It was relying on story.
And for many viewers, that was even more exciting.
As January 2011 approached, advance bookings slowly began opening across different regions.
The industry watched carefully.
Trade analysts watched carefully.
The dia watched carefully.
And sowhere in California, sitting in his small room in Burbank after finishing another programming assignnt, Karuppu stared at the latest booking reports appearing on his laptop.
A small smile appeared on his face.
For the first ti since leaving India, one of his films was about to face the audience without him being there.
And now there was only one question left.
Would the audience embrace 13B the sa way they embraced Aadhavan?
Or would they reject this darker, stranger story?
The answer was only a few weeks away.
*******************************
(Author note:)
I hope you guys give your opinion and idea's.
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Don't forget to review guys...
Well I didn't want to cause confusion. So I would update the main system chapter when ever system gets an update of states. While I would be showing only the changes taking place in the update.
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