As the nation celebrated World Heritage Day on April 18 and several programs, activities were undertaken at different monuments in the country, a start-up in Pune is silently doing its bit towards monuments and reviving its culture with the help of technology. 

Digital Art VRe, is one of the leading organisations in 3D visualisation and is now documenting few monuments in the country by making its 360 degree videos. Ajay Parge, a digital art specialist and Rugwed Deshpande, a professional advertisers have come together to make these unique virtual reality videos giving tourists an insight of monuments. Started in the year 2015, their company Digital Art VRe is among the very few companies working in the field of virtual reality. 

One of their projects is for Gujarat Tourism where they have created a 360 degree video of stepwell Rani-Ki-Vav in Patan. Though not long, but these small videos gives tourist a sneak-peak about what it is like visiting these monuments. Other videos also include valley ruins of Lothal and Dholavira.

Talking more about the 360 degree videos, Parge who has 22 years of experience in visualisation said, “The whole idea of crisp two-minutes videos of these monuments is to attract tourists. By having VR lounge at various places, tourists can wear oculus eye gear, see what interests them in the video, and accordingly plan their vacation to see the place.”

“We wanted to use these 360 degree videos in day-to-day life. Tourism is one of the best sectors where the videos of monuments and famous places can be recreated to generate interest among the tourists,” he further added. 

Parge also spoke about his Shaniwarwada project. 360 degree video on Shaniwarwada is surely a much awaited project for this duo as they both belong from Pune and have an emotional connect with this cultural capital. 

Talking about Shaniwarwada, Parge informed, “It is difficult to restore the entire Shaniwar wada because it has many limitations. Finance being one of them, the permissions from archeological department and historian different views always make it difficult to restore these monuments completely.”

In the above cases, 360 degree videos surely helps to recreate the era in a newer way. A person wearing an oculus eye gear can relive the era of Peshwas.

He further informed, “The 360 degree videos will take the viewer to the seventeenth century. Talking about Peshwa, it will start with a landscape. Later the viewer can experience the seven-storey structure being constructed in front of them, horses running around and the person can have a stroll inside wada, take a look at famous fountains and various doors. This will all happen with the background score  having Shaniwarwada’s historical information.”

Taking suggestions from the historians and concerned department, the organisation is planning to make the video as detailed  as possible and authentic with regards to history. 

Discussing their work internationally and also increasing the give and take in this field, DAVRE was also one of the only company from India invited to Indie Developer for Oculus Connect 2 held in Hollywood. 

With such intricate videos showcasing the nuances of historical monuments, one can altogether experience the monuments in a newer technology.