Modi creates live holograph for election campaign

Modi creates live holograph for election campaign

    On Sunday, India witnessed its first live holograph as the lifelike 3D apparition of tech-savvy Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi strode into four cities — Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Baroda. From a studio in Gandhinagar, Modi was beamed live, delivering an election speech, in the selected cities. Modi is the first politician in the world to use a holograph for electioneering purposes. And for Mani Shankar and his business partner Kasu Rajagopal Reddy, it was a breakthrough in terms of technology — for the first time in the world, a crystal clear holograph was beamed live using a satellite. In the past, holographs were beamed using fibre channels on the Internet.
    Hyderabad-based director Mani says, “A year ago, I heard about this technology where you can beam a person live in 3D anywhere. My business partner and I contacted a British company and got the license to use this technology in nine countries. We developed our own programme to take the experience to a new level.”
    When asked why his company had zeroed in on Modi for their first holograph experiment, Mani says, “We were waiting for an opportunity to put the technology to use and that was when a person from Modi’s office approached us. We were more than willing to put it to use. Modi is extremely tech-savvy and for him, this was an excellent opportunity to showcase the power of technology.”
    In mid-December, Mani plans to inaugurate a studio in his Hyderabad where people can see how holographs are made. He is also working on a project featuring Michael Jackson’s holograph, but refuses to reveal much about it. However, we hear, the project will have Jackson performing in 30 countries, including India, where he will be seen alongside Shankar Mahadevan, Hariharan and others.

Narendra Modi and Mani Shankar