A Film Finds its Maker.
Scene 1: This Film Found its Makers
I want to, in all humility, assert upfront that Mahayoddha Rama isnt just an idea. ‘Different’ as the film makers cliche goes, its actually a deliverance in the way it formed itself. From Abhimanyu Singh’s mouth, to my head, from something less sublime and subtle to being more rooted. ‘A film on Rama versus Ravana. Cutting all other things out’, said Manyu, rolling his eyes and jumping on his seat, seeming to get visibly excited. That really was a magic moment for both of us. Where others would beg to differ, believing that it’ll be the Ramayana re rendered and wonder what the hell was the excitement about, he and I felt, ‘Yeah, there was immense possibility in this way of rendition!’ At least on paper. And that’s how Mahayoddha Rama, The warrior Prince, was born.
The next few weeks was a flurry of activity. We roped in the prodigious Ashok Banker, more of the magical moments, who had awakened my love for the otherwise passé epic (in my opinion) with his 6 part series of an original rendition of his Ramayana. The reasons I decided to approach Banker were two. The first was my wife Monisha’s pushing and prodding to go for the person who had already rendered the Ramayana. The second was his books. Monisha and I are ardent fans (she started with his series and i got obsessed with them and finished them, having read them twice over since) of his Ramayana series. Really, if you haven’t read them, do pick them up. They’re a great read. If he could write like that, all bawdy bits irrespective, then with the right collaboration we could have a winner on hand!
I was mistaken though when I thought that this animated rendition would be a cinch. Truly, how do you decide what to leave in the story structure of an epic seen by one and all? And more importantly how do you tell it differently and refreshingly? Ashok , Manyu and I met after he had said yes and monetary considerations were put behind us. We started to discuss the idea. For Manyu and me it had already started taking form since we had been living it for over a month now, and our job was to bring Ashok up to speed. Now when we sat opposite him, the one thing we all agreed on was that 3D animation was just a tool, a very powerful one nonetheless, to tell our story.
The story had to be awesome. The content would not be slave to technique/style! And in the spirit of things to come, the first draft was a disaster! We got it horribly wrong. It had everything in it. It was word heavy, ponderous and completely missing the grammar of animation. But then Ashok, Manyu and I wanted to work like this. We wanted to go wrong, stretch it to the limit and then pull back. Those were dark days none the less when I almost lost our screenwriter to temporary frustration, anger and nerves. I think what helped was that Manyu and my belief in this project was unshakeable. And we tried to treat Ashok and have him treat himself as a writer who was writing an animated series with a fresh perspective and not burden him with the international success of the Ramayana series. And it clicked.
Magical moment happened when ‘Ashok the awesome’ managed to put this film in 1 line. ‘ A re rendition of the Ramayana from a 13 year olds mouth’. There in lay the difference, the perspective and the change. So what if the 13 year olds were in their early and late thirties and early forties! From then on Ashok was supercharged. His second draft of the first half was genuinely good, and when he and I sat together, lopping, joining, eliminating we knew that just around the corner was a whopper. This process of collaboration really brings out the best in people who gel and teams really, are made like this. Considering that often collaborations can be really laborious, thank ‘Rama’ that this one clicked.
Once Ashoks draft was ready, by now on the 3 rd draft, I had signed on another very good writer. Sameer Sharma, of the Bhoot and Swades fame amongst many others is a subliminal genius. He gets the credit for additional screenplay and dialogues for Mahayoddha Rama. He is a superb collaborator. Quick to see the gaps and momentum in a script, he pushes you to push yourself. Irrespective of how the script stood by the time Banker had finished, Sameer took it to another level in the additions. And his pushing was always pointed inwards. His sentence normally started with , ‘ I am not sure but don’t you feel/think……’ and bloody hell, he forced you to iron out all those niggling scenes and structure which you thought were…… okay.
It was great working with him and by the time we finished the screenplay and the dialogues in our convent school hindi and handed it to two talented writers, Varun Grover and Rahul Patel, the feeling of getting a really good script in hand was growing. Varun and Rahul added the right words, added humor, added spice, they were our tadka specialists. Really, it is awesome, these collaborations with distinctly different writers. And so, at the end of 10 months from the day we got Ashok, we had the bound script of Mahayoddha Rama!
SCENE 2: Director Kaun?
Somewhere during Manyu and my conversations, it cropped up, ‘So, who will direct the film’? That was a very good question specially when India had, till then thrown up about ZERO directors for animation. To be honest, animation films were only being outsourced to India from the west and our indigenous forays were sad and futile. The directors typically, were production heads or operation heads, who because they had knowledge of the technique of 3D animation took up the mantle to direct the films. Later of course came the very talented Anurag Kashyap, thus bringing in some order and credibility to animation films with his 2 D feature, ‘Hanuman Returns’. Now of course the list is getting bigger. But I digress. So who will tell this story?
There were the handful of animation films made in India which we had to choose from. Zilch there. Some superlative designers from NID and channel heads with great understanding of story telling in 30-45 secs. Zilch there for a full length animation feature which needed all their time. And it started to grow within. The truth is that like many, I am a film buff. I watch mainstream cinema, Bollywood, Hollywood, Chinese, European, Middle eastern films and everything I can in animation. I have no formal education in films, only 15 years of having produced, directed and creative directed shows for TV and having directed a handful of advertisements. And a belief in telling and recognizing good stories.
And here was Rama. A blank canvas. With a CEO who trusted and believed I could. So I did. The truth is that I have been wanting to make films since…….. ! And this was the right time. It just felt right. And, the moment I threw my hat in the ring, everything changed. TV gives one discipline and, if you desire , an aching search for perfection. The more the frustration of TV, its deadline oriented misery the more was the fire burning within. While the heart had yearned to possess the hallowed FILMS, since 1998, much in the distant horizon, the eyes were locked in the present fighting relentless TV screw ups. And that experience was going to be put to test. Guess it was time to put money where my mouth had been for 15 years. ‘if I get a chance, I will…….’ . The chance had arrived! A new creative head was hired for Contiloe Films in quick time and I was released to follow and make Mahayoddha Rama and set up Contiloe Pictures.
That’s when excitement struck me. To tell a story aggressively, to create, within an order, this brilliant tale which has entertained millions for decades. Time to tell it again. Like I would want to. Well, i would have liked to in a live action, green backlot, VFX style, but in this case animation would do just fine. Visions of vistas unexplored, ingenuity at its peak, inspiring experimentation possibilities, un-chartered roads and the sky being the limit. The enormity struck me and strikes me even now as I write. Within a head is a kernel of an idea. That takes shape and forms a story. And the translation of that story to a magnum opus is what I had to do. In the format that is the be all and end all of all things entertaining. Films! To make a short story long, as I have done, I was on the way to make my first film!!
Ummm… what did I know about 3 D animation though??
(to be continued)
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
grr article…r u looking at more animation stories…hw cn w get in touch..regards
@premal.
Kind words.Thanks bro. We’re always looking for good stories. You can take my email… realroark @ gmail . com and correspond.
I like the candidness with which you’re given us a summary of your journey, makes for a great read. Got me excited for you! Sounds like you guys are getting very creative with this age-old story, which is refreshing. Good luck :D
rohit… indrajit looks jhakaaaas in 2d!!!!