Animation Films – ‘Cartoon’ Nahi Hain
I beg to differ…
a) koi talent nahi hai in this field – Animation Films, in India?
b) Paisa nahi hain?
c) is-type films ke liye koi public nahi hain?
I believe that we have people, technology and money to make animated feature films in hindi or any other regional languages. And I also believe that there is a public for this kind of cinema. In this article I will explain why I so believe in those and why more production house should invest in this genre.
First, a brief history of animated feature films created by Indians. Indian animators joined hands with animators from Japan, to create Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama. This was first in Indian cinema, as far as I believe. After that there have been dozens of animated feature films created by Indians. But most of them have been in English or the quality of animation has been crap, so did not get much of media attention or success. However, last year’s Hanuman gave us some kind of hope, albeit the quality of animation not being that great.
Kamal Mistry - who? I bet half of you do not have a clue about him. Neither did I knew about him until I cam across an article – “An ‘animated’ Passage to India”. He works for Pixar (now part of Disney), as a technical director. He is not the only Indian working at Pixar/Disney; there are quite few of them. So far Kamal has worked on The Incredibles and Cars. Then there are 50 Mumbai based animators who have worked on creating CGI effects for “Chronicles of Narnia”. There is also N. Madhusudhanan, who is a special effects specialist and he has been part of a team creating CGI effects for “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. That’s not bad, eh? So this just shows that not only we have the talent but also sound experience in this particular field.
As far as I know both Sahara One Motion Pictures and Penta-media Graphics Ltd. are willing to invest money in making animated feature films be it in Hindi or English. The latter company produced “The Legend of Buddha” – which was nominated for Oscar in the best animation film category. So there is some money available for animators/directors to make animated films. Also I do not believe that it is too expensive for Indians to make animated films because if we can afford to go around the globe to just a four minute songs, then…
India is a vibrant country, so there must be millions of stories. Someone just needs to develop one those stories into an animation film. And it would work as long as the quality of animation is top-notch and the storyteller is brilliant. Also Indian audiences love family movies – they are sucker for family movies! If they can make illogical movies super-duper hits, then why would not they accept this kind of genre, eh?
Animated Films are not ‘Cartoon’. It is a piece of art; a lot of thought and effort goes into creating this kind of cinema. I reckon that USA animated feature films have better story than say movies like Fanna or KANK has it. This is what Indian audience should understand and appreciate that kind of movies.
It is just about getting right people on the board, being creative and proactive.
Tags: Teaching Film-making
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
- HG, Good one. A few months ago I was at the poolside open air lounge at the Standard in LA and by chance ended up meeting a bunch of desi animation professionals who were at the success party of a Hollywood animation movie. They were a part of the team, and we ended up having a great discussion on animation in Bollywood.
There’s another animation movie soon to be launched next year by a very creative person in Bollywood. Things are pretty much under wraps. Watch out for the announcement which may come by the end of this year or early next year. As far as I’ve heard the animation in this project will be handled by one of the top Hollywood studios (or their affiliates).
it’s just unbelievable. there are so many desi animators and yet we have not produced a top quality animated film. imo, if india wants to win an oscar, then our best chance would be in animation category or musical films category.
By any chance are you referring to Magik?
I’ll be the first in line to watch any indian animated film, but I would like to see some trendsetting filmmaking, not a jump on the animation bandwagon.
Krrish is a trensetter in the way Steven Seagal’s films are oscar-worthy.
Who else is tired of the constant crack injection of cute furry animals with crazy antics on a quest to find something or to escape from somewhere?
I remember that japanese anime style Ramayana film, I thought it was awesome. I’d like to see more films like that, not in terms of storyline but in terms of taking risks and not just sitting on your ass producing something easy, like the detestable hanumana film.
HG, nice to know that there are people like you who consider animation films are as piece of art. For that matter, even cartoons require a lot of thought and effort. I have been trying hard to convince my friends that animation films are fun and more than money’s worth.
Personally I felt that Hanuman was a very good effort and was well received. At least its a start and hopefully things will improve for the animation scene in India.
- FB you are in for a pleasant surprise. Let that surprise be my New Year’s gift to you that I shall reveal soon. :-)
Happened to see Ramayana two days back.I tend to watch it again and again. Yes, the effort and research (both content and technology wise) is immense. The makers have taken care of the nuances like ambiance, background score et al which sometimes go unnoticed in a regular film.
It’s true we haven’t been able to tap this resource completely. The latest one to join in is India’s first 3D animation film, Krishna. Though I won’t consider it as an outstanding work but I appreciate the effort that te makers have put in.
However, the general mindset of animated films being equivalent to cartoons is pathetic. None of the papers cared to review this film despite the fact that it was the only Hindi relese of that week apart from Jai Santoshi Maa.
Maybe this is the reason why we don’t have a serious and mature outlook towards the art called Animation while Hollywood comes out with a masterpiece like Spirit.
I hope our budding animation industry doesnt fall into the trap of -mytholigies-as-the-only-content- cycle.Though its a very good move
to attact people to this kind of cinema with mytholigies its a double edged sword.People might relate animation films to only mythologies.Hope this industry evolves into more independent and worthy content (unlike mainstream
cinema where it is still trapped into melodrama and cliches).
@HG Our desi animators are very busy to work on local animation films.Most of them are working for Hollywood films.Outsourcing has caught one more bug ;)Also cost, I guess is a major hindrance for a high quality movie.A typical high quality 3D animated movie(2D is almost dead with “Atlantis”) costs around $50 million.I dont think anybody will be ready to invest so much money as of now.But “Hanuman” is a worthy product,”Krishna” on other hand is there just to cash the craze created by “Hanuman”.Content wise and Animation wise it is just pathetic.
Hey I am just thinking of possible content for the animation movies(already exiting graphic novels,fairy tales,legends etc.,) apart from Ramayana and Mahabharata.Guys can you add to -
Panchatantra,Jungle Book,Arabian nights,Shaktiman(seriously),Krrish (now dont laugh plz)..
anangbhai,
i agree with you but movies like bug’s life, antz, and finding nemo were ace. people easily feel connected with those kind of stories, somehow. also like you said, producers should not be just picking up a mythology from shelves and getting animators to make.. they should do thorough research and spend money on quality of animation.
FenderBender,
Hanuman was good, but it could have been much better if they had put more effort and money in it. The narration in the movie was so poor. It’s a decent start, though.
illuzon,
I saw some clips of ‘Krishna’ and it seemed like the producer just wanted to make some quick money. The quailty of animation was poor, the way it was promoted was poor, the songs… I just hate it when one type of movie or song clicks then there are millions of making those kinds of movies/songs.
fourthwall,
yes, it is expensive, but it is worth taking the audience.. because, the audience is broader(worldwide) and there is a scope for merchandising, etc. Since you will spending that much on animation – the quality would be good; just need to get a good story and a good storyteller. there are plenty stories and heaps of brilliant storyteller.
i would love to see or make animated movies on stray animals or rickshaws.
@Oz – a surprize gift from you for New Year’s…hmmm…now that’s something i am DEFINITELY looking forward to
Hey Honahaar – you didn’t tell me about the animation about the legend of ram. you only told me about hanuman – which I’ve seen and was impressed with. I’d really love to see more animated movies of this genre from india…and if there really are many animators capable of doing this, I look forward to having my socks blown off quite frankly….
i only found about it recently – when i went to india. Cartoon Network India have got a few Indian animated series. I think, they show animated version of Akbar and Birbal. Not sure.
http://www.cartoonnetworkindia.com/jsp/tv/cartoontheatre/index.jsp
Another amazing story of an Indian Animation Company
that just proves there is money to make in this field and heaps of money!
Must watch:
“Horn OK Please
It’s an short animation movie by a Belgian guy and animation done by an Indian and an Irish