EXCLUSIVE: India’s Phantom Digital Effects is bringing the likes of Milk, Lola Post and Tippett Studio together under a new umbrella group.
Phantom Media Group (PMG) will comprise VFX and animation businesses, namely Milk and Lola Post, Tippett Studio, PhantomFX and Spectre Post.
This comes follow a period of acquisitions for Phantom, which has built out a group of post houses based across Asia-Pacific, the U.S. and the UK. A deal to snap up UK-based indie companies Milk and Lola Post was unveiled in July, while U.S.-based Tippett was acquired in 2024, as we revealed at the time. In the same year, the Chennai-headquartered Phantom launched Spectre Post out of the southern Indian city of Bengaluru.
Though they’re now all consolidated under one roof and a unified strategic vision at PMG, each studio will retain its individual approach and creative leadership, working for clients across film, TV, commercial and immersive content.
Leading PMG is CEO and founder Bejoy Arputharaj, COO Binu Joshua and Executive Vice President Ian Unterreiner.
It’s been a rough period for global post-production and VFX houses, with the likes of Technicolor collapsing and DNEG cutting thousands of staff members, but there’s a new era of companies emerging and PMG can count itself among the most prominent. Earlier this year, we revealed Ireland’s Playhouse Studios had rescued another Soho post house, Lipsync, after it went into administration.
“The past year has been tough for everyone in the film industry, studios, artists, and productions alike,” Arputharaj told Deadline today. “However, challenges like these also make you stop and reimagine how we can work smarter and build stronger. Phantom Media Group was born from that reflection, bringing together legacy, innovation, and global collaboration under one roof. We’re not reacting to the market; we’re shaping what comes next.
Arputharaj added the launch of PMG “reflects who we are today: a truly global group, built on a phenomenal legacy and powered by an incredibly talented team.”
Milk is best known for work on the likes of Good Omens, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Dracula, 24: Live Another Day and Doctor Who, while Lola Post has credits for The Reluctant Traveler, Bad Sisters, Welcome to Earth and The Completely Made Up Adventures of Dick Turpin. Tippett Studio, established way back in 1984, counts among its credits work on numerous Star Wars, Poker Face and the Ted films and The Walking Dead franchise. Further back it worked on the Terminator movies, Jurassic Park and Starship Troopers among others. PhantomFX has worked on everything from major Indian streaming shows such as Citadel: Honey Bunny to The Avengers and Pixels.
Upcoming and recent projects across the PMG group include The Mandalorian and Grogu (Tippett Studio for Disney), Good Omens Season 3 (Milk for Prime Video), The Witcher Season 4 (Milk for Netflix), Ironheart (Tippett Studio and PhantomFX for Disney+), Heads of State (Milk for Prime Video), Walking with Dinosaurs (Lola Post for BBC and PBS), Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force (Tippett Studio and PhantomFX for Alibaba Pictures Group), Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (Tippett Studio for Disney+) and Alien: Romulus (Tippett Studio for Disney).
“Each of our studios brings unique strengths, styles and voices,” said Arputharaj. “Together, we are expanding our capabilities to foster deeper creative partnerships around the world, while driving continued growth. This is an exciting new chapter – one that reflects our ambitions for the future.”
Unterreiner added: “PMG brings together the expertise of leading studios into a powerhouse network that combines scale, agility and innovation. By aligning talent, technology and resources across key regions, we can maintain world-class creative standards for the most complex productions and deliver exceptional results for clients around the globe.”
