Animated Lalu

I don’t know what their real motivation behind this was but the theme is sure to get them a lot of eye balls. They have already been covered by the Indian press and have been interviewed by television channels in India. I managed to catch a glimpse of the animated clip during one such interview and was horrified by the crassness of the content. The voice-over is pretty accurate no doubt but watching a semi-dressed Lalu in a vest and lungi, carrying a ‘lota’ for obvious reasons and being chased by a cameraman is not my idea of entertainment. Worse still, Lalu’s character then enters a loo and the cameraman focuses the camera inside the loo through the keyhole. Is that supposed to be funny? What on earth are Indian audiences going to be subjected to next?!

In terms of design, the quality is poor - very, very primitive and the animation is limited. The only saving grace is the guy who voices Lalu’s character - he is spot on.

The creator - Pawan

This is supposedly the first clip the team is about to release. They are looking for sponsors/financiers for subsequent episodes. The team members named in the news reports were Pawan - the cartoonist/animator and brain behind this project and Shashi - the voiceover artist who has mimicked Lalu’s voice quite well. You can read the IBNlive report here and watch the TV interview below. Would love to hear from my readers what they feel about this one.

If you are unable to view the above clip, see the original video on the ibnlive website

images courtesy IBNlive.in.com

The hype was not all bad. Many more people began sitting up and taking notice of this thing called ‘Animation’ than before. Students and parents alike opened their eyes to this new career prospect. Existing animators began celebrating their new-found respect in the eyes of their detractors who had so far looked down upon their choice of vocation. All-in-all the Indian animation industry saw a spurt in interest, enthusiasm, educational avenues and job opportunities. Within a year, more than 70 animated feature films were announced. Actual work began on a far lesser number of movies.

But the latest news coming out of studios is not good. Many production houses and studios have folded up. Others have laid off a majority of their employees. People have woken up to the fact that making an animated film is no cake walk. There may be a lot of enthusiasm and ideas but the lack of funds, acute shortage of ‘talented’ artists and short-sightedness of studios have become major obstacles.

For sometime now, there were a lot of outsourced projects being done by our studios, besides the in-house developments. Companies needed to ’show’ their prospective clients their team strength so a lot of  average and even below average talent got hired. The cream of the crop was being poached from one studio after the other. As pay scales rose, so did the rate of employee attrition. Now outsourced work has dried up. A few substandard animated releases turned out to be duds (why am I not surprised?!!) And suddenly a lot of hopes have come crashing down like a pack of cards.

Many artists now find themselves jobless. An alarming number of fresh graduates from institutes have secured neither jobs nor offers. As in other industries, animation too is now seeing a massive slow down. So is it time yet to declare this a ‘bust’ quite like the dot-com bust less than a decade ago?

I do not think so. This is just a phase. We have hit a plateau. And I think it is very good. Critical, in fact, for the well-being and future success of Indian animation. Why, you might ask. For multiple reasons:

1. Let this be a wake up call for all those who jumped into animation without a thought. For those who took the plunge not for the sake of animation but at the instance of the $$$$$… They read in the media about the billions of dollars waiting to be gathered and followed the ‘Pied Piper’ to their doom. Art can not succeed without heart.

2. This phase will help separate the wheat from the chaff. The joblessness is short-term. The ones with true creativity and skill will get hired again. The only ones who need to worry are the ones who lacked talent to begin with. The rest can use this time to enhance their skills and glean more knowledge rather than wallow in hopelessness and self-pity. This way they will be prepared when the wind changes and new assignments beckon them.

3. Our film-makers will now focus a little more on quality content than quantity. (I hope!!) Rather than rush through projects at breakneck speed without really analyzing they should be a little self-critical and work very hard to deliver good work. Original concepts and well-executed films will surely succeed and bring the train back on track. We have hit a plateau, yes. But the graph will rise once again.

4. Indians have this tendency to take things easy till a problem of gigantic proportions arises. This recession-like situation should give us a good kick on our behinds and motivate us to do what it takes to get out of it. Talk, discuss, share, try… No point just sitting around and cribbing. Web 2 followed the dotcom recession. Perhaps this is an opportune moment for Indian animation’s second coming.

After talking to many people in the Indian animation industry, I found that most are waiting with bated breath for the Diwali-release of Roadside Romeo. The fate of many an animator lies in the success or failure of this Yashraj film. Studios, production houses and investors alike have put new projects on hold until they see whether the audiences take to the first official fully-animated Bollywood movie. (And no, Icy n Spicy doesn’t count!) From the promos, Roadside Romeo looks promising. The Disney involvement in itself is a quality stamp.

I feel positive that over the next few months, things will improve. I know a lot of my blogs have focused on the problems. But I truly believe that if we pull up our socks, gather the courage to invest confidently and generously in animation, work ten times harder, push the envelope, overcome our limitations and do all this sincerely, we can take forward Indian Animation successfully into its second phase. Cheers to that!

Don’t believe me? Read this news report on Pritish Nandy Communications’ latest venture - animated remakes of three Shakti Samanta golden oldies - Howrah Bridge, Amar Prem and Barsaat Ki Ek Raat.

Pritish Nandy announced, “This is my homage to one of the most underrated filmmakers of the country. When I met Mr. Samanta, he was so pleased to know his films would reach out to a new generation. Howrah Bridge is one of my favourite noire films. The magic of Sachin Dev Burman’s music, the chemistry between Ashok Kumar and Madhubala and the seductive charm of Ashok Kumar’s baritone….all that I want to capture in animation form.”

It is a noble thought but reach out to a new generation? How? Just by converting it into an animated film? I don’t think so. The story needs to lend itself to the medium. Capture the magic in ‘animation form’? Animation by itself is not going to be able to add value to these films. There has to be a better justification for rehashing stories meant for a very different kind of audience than the current one that thrives on hard-core action, flashy dances and slapstick humour. No doubt, the movies were masterpieces in their time but modern audiences have an extremely short attention span. The beauty of animation lies in its ability to paint in front of your eyes those images which can not otherwise be captured with a camera. Animation is about conveying fantasy through a visual medium, and exagerating reality. I fail to understand how any form of animation can do justice to the solemn lovestory in Amar Prem or the black n white thriller Howrah Bridge, let alone Barsaat Ki Ek Raat which didn’t even do well when it was first released!

PNC will not only pay a homage to the Bengali mellow-dramatist but also to the immortal melodies of Sachin and his son Rahul Dev Burman in the cinema of Shakti Samanta. We’ll be hearing the animated characters sing songs like ‘Aaiye Meherbaan’ in Howrah Bridge, ‘Yeh Kya Hua’ and ‘Raina Beeti Jaaye’ in Amar Prem and ‘Apne Pyar Ke Sapne’ in Barsaat Ki Ek Raat. Explains Mr Nandy, “We’ll have the original music from these films. But we’ll also have re-mix version of the originals side by side.”

Huh?!!

Almost makes me want the mytho-animations back! Really, for the sake of Indian animators, I do hope that Roadside Romeo will turn all these stereo-types on their heads and give us a reason to rejoice. This Diwali we will find out and until then I am keeping my fingers crossed.

It’s been a long time since I last blogged but this frightening piece of news brought me back from my brief blog hiatus. Apparently, India’s First 3D Mainstream Animation Movie is about to be released on 18th July. It’s called Icy N Spicy - A Journey to Tonga and is produced and directed by Anil Goyal, “a most experience person in the field of 3d animation” (that’s what his website claims). You only need to take a look at the stills from the movie (see below) to know why it is something we all need to seriously worry about.

Until now, I have written about various Indian animated films to watch out for. Brilliant stories, outstanding visuals, hard-working Indian animators, studios with vision. Kutti Chetan, Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang, Little Pandavas… and many more. But this absurdly named film - Icy N Spicy - is so pathetic, it shouldn’t even be released!

I haven’t seen anything as juvenile as this in a long, long time. I had to pinch myself several times over to make sure it wasn’t a bad nightmare that I was having. I don’t know what “advanced technologies and software” (again, their claim!) they have used to create the film but by all means, the character design is as primitive as could possibly be. I think even the freshest of animation students do a better job. As seen in many of the recent Indian animated releases, the stills and promo pictures are often far superior to the final animated film. Going by the appalling quality of the stills of “Icy n Spicy”, I dread to think of what the actual film might be like. They haven’t even spared the Disney “D” by incorporating it into their poster.

It is indeed a very sad state of affairs that talentless people are getting funded and absolute rubbish is being touted with the “India” sticker on it. You even have some of the best mainstream singers lending their voices to this film and from the publicity write-ups, it seems like this film will get worldwide release. What astounds me is that the film has been written about in several leading publications all over India. Makes me think, is it just a matter of paying a fee to get oneself written about in the Indian Press? Just goes to show the wonders a good PR company can do for you.

In the rush to make India’s First 3D Mainstream Animation Movie, the creators have overlooked everything from story to character design to quality. Like frogs in a well, clueless about the world outside, their site is full of praise for the film, oblivious to the fact that it makes them look even more ridiculous. They are only going to make a fool of themselves. In their race to be first and win accolades, they will flush India’s reputation in the animation industry down the drain!

On one hand you have a lot of Indian studios and production houses creating fabulous films - features, shorts and advertisements. They have put in years of hard work into their creations. We even have international studios shaking hands with Indian ones, impressed by their quality of animation. And here, you have a delusional company that is touting first generation animation as India’s best!

Nothing about the film is original. Neither the story nor the characters. The boy and girl protagonists look like they have severe physical disabilities. Their mentor, Gantoo, is yet another take on Lord Ganesh (ho hum!) and the villain is an extremely unoriginal and unimpressive derivative of the time-tested character of a djinn. The backgrounds are worse than the ones in early games that we played on our PCs. They claim they will create history. Yes, I’m sure they will - as the one shoddy film that destroyed the reputation of Indian animation.

Just so that you do not think this scathing review is unnecessary, here are a few more stills from the film. You decide whether or not my rant is justified.

If you have still not fainted with fright, please join me in my prayer…

For the sake of Indian animation and of all the talented, aspiring Indian animators, I fervently pray that this film never sees the light of day. And if it does, I hope our audiences evince their intelligence by booing the makers all the way back to their drawing boards.

If you still have the stomach for more such horrors, please visit the Icy N Spicy website but be warned, you are doing so at your own risk!

There are some obvious factors and then there are other reasons which we tend to overlook. As we stand on the threshold of a new chapter for Indian animation, now is the time to take stock and to honestly assess ourselves.

- One of the most common issues that studios raise every time the topic is broached is the severe lack of ‘quality’ talent. India has a rich history and culture of both art and story-telling. Then why is it that we fail so miserably when we need to combine the two? Should we blame the so-called ‘talentless’ animators or the ones who are supposed to have trained them? It is sad but true that many of our institutions, even famous ones, have failed our animators.

- India is a smorgasbord of myriad cultures. We have 22 languages recognized by the constitution and thousands of dialects. It is next to impossible then to group the audience and adhere them to a common cultural trend. Very few live-action films have met with nation-wide audience approval and applause. You only have to look at the regional film culture to see the diversity. Compare the films in Marathi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil and Kannada. They are all significantly different from each other. If, after so many decades of film-making, live-action regional films have not met with pan-Indian success, how can we expect ‘one formula’ to work when it comes to animation?

- Producers and Distributors don’t want to bet on this horse called Animation. Or didn’t want to, until Hanuman came along and like a true super-hero, rescued the Indian animation industry. The less said about its quality, the better but at least the film brought Indian audiences to the theaters to watch a home-grown animated feature! And in the process grossed enough money (of course, aided by smart licensing and merchandizing) to get the financiers to sit up and take notice of this dark horse.

- With Animation, one needs to think long-term. It takes a good three to four years to make a good animated film whereas in one year your average live-action film is ready to screen. This long-term vision is beyond the understanding of producers who are looking at quick cash returns. All this, hopefully, will change as the market and the industry matures.

- In their new-found excitement and zeal for animation, as many as 70 animated feature films have been announced by various groups (studios/production houses/Bollywood film-makers), but who will create them? We need feature film ready talent and we need it soon. If the studios feel quality animators don’t exist, then shouldn’t they train the ones with potential. Ultimately who will reap the benefits? It is an investment that they must make if they wish to earn rich returns. There are examples right before our eyes of studios who have taken care of their animators and yielded fantastic results. But we shall discuss good HR practices in another blog.

- Story, story, story! Most of the films that have been released or are currently under-production are banking on stories either from mythology or rooted in Bollywood. Why don’t we stretch our imagination a bit (or even a lot!) and break free from the shackles of our obsession with both? We have a long history of story-telling. Why can’t we create new stories?
- Scriptwriting for Indian animation will HAVE to evolve. It is serious business and we need to treat it like that. Screenwriting for animation remains an on-going challenge and we have a long way to go before we have professional animation script-writers in our industry.

- In Hollywood, making a mainstream live-action feature is 2 and half times as expensive as making an animated film. Its no wonder that producers are happy to invest in animation. In India, people have 50 crore budgets for live action features but are conservative when it comes to budgeting for animation - they would rather pay the top Bollywood Star in Crores than even a quarter of it on animation and visual effects.

- Animation in India is still in its infancy and studios are still in the process of setting up the feature film pipeline, the evolution of which will take time and experience. We are yet to get the numbers right and learn to capitalize on Licensing and Merchandising like our international counterparts who have mastered this aspect of business.

- India is still a baby and a novice as far as the animation industry is concerned. We first need to establish a culture of animation before we can build an industry out of it. We don’t even have our own signature style - like the Japanese Anime or early East-European puppet animation films. We are still trying to fit ourselves into the Disney-Pixar-Dreamworks mould. It will take us some time to first master what exists, experiment with it and finally come out with a style of our own which the world will recognize.

- Bollywood makes over 800 live-action films a year. The animation industry is miniscule in comparison. Though 70 plus films have been announced in the past one year, less than half of those will actually get made. We expect 8-10 of them to release this year. As they say, we have miles to go before we sleep!

So let us not aim big. Let us first win over our Indian audiences and then attempt to impress the international crowd. Due to the novelty factor, so far even poor quality animation has managed to achieve a fair amount of success. But for how long? Audiences, specially the younger ones are extremely discerning and flaws don’t go unnoticed. They are being bombarded with good quality international animation through TV shows and are very aware.

More than Hanuman (parts one and two), I credit Taare Zameen Par for giving Indian animation a shot in the arm. TZP can be truly called the ‘crossover film’ for Indian animation. The animation had a purpose and it blended seamlessly into the narrative. It carried the story forward and enabled the audience to connect with the protagonist in such a way that wouldn’t have been possible through live action. But that is a subject for a new blog altogether!

(Coming up next… “Why Taare Zameen Par is a major achievement for Indian animation?”)

What triggered this tirade? I just read this press release announcing Aptech’s global expansion:

Aptech Global Learning Solutions announced today that it will open its first animation training academy in Brazil in May.

“The centre in Brazil will start functioning within three weeks. We have decided to open 35 new centres in countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, Russia and Vietnam this fiscal. These centres will be a combination of Arena Animation Academy and Aptech Computer Education training institutes,” Aptech executive director R. Krishnan told IANS.

“We will also be expanding nationally. New centres will be opened this year at Cuttack, Rourkela, Bhubaneswar, Durgapur, Guwahati and Dibrugarh,” he added.

The course content for the two academies is also going to change from May.

Krishnan said: “With animation and computer training institutes mushrooming everywhere, we are focussing on how our students can get faster and better jobs. We will introduce some new modules and methodologies.”

…focus on faster and better jobs? How about focusing on creating better animators? How about exposing our budding animators to world class global animation? How about giving them more well-rounded training in every aspect of the animation business? Getting the job is NOT the be all and end all of it. How about being prepared for and performing well on the job?

“We have introduced a specialised demo reel making module in the syllabus this year. Earlier, the demo reel was just a part of the curriculum. Now this demo reel will act as the portfolio of a student.”

The Demo Reel seems to be the Holy Grail of all aspiring animators. You get that right and a glorious job will fall into your lap, is what most animation students are led to believe. Sadly, it isn’t enough. Yes, a demo reel will get your foot in the door but then what?

Our Animation education system only seems to be churning out robots. We are mass producing tool-wielding technicians, not creative artists who are masters of their tools. Where are the visionaries? Where are the wildly creative artists who will push the envelope and breach boundaries to come up with original ideas and imaginative visual styles?

All companies need to grow and expand, so it isn’t surprising that our training institutes are also branching out globally. But when our own system is so sorely lacking, are we equipped to go teach the world?

The Animation Archive is a project of ASIFA-Hollywood, with support from The Walter Lantz Foundation. In operation for two years now, they have put together a wealth of information. It is an ambitious project to expand the offerings of the current ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Center in Burbank to include a virtual archive, museum, library and research facility for the benefit of the animation community, students and general public.

ASIFA-Hollywood Archive has been in operation now for two years. In their own words,

“To date, we have digitized well over 15,000 images and 2,500 animated films. There are nearly 450 articles available here on the Archive blog covering a wide range of subjects. The blog is followed by readers all over the world. We recently had our 1 millionth unique visitor; and in the past two years, we have served 2.5 million articles. We’ve mounted several exhibits in the archive space, which has been visited by artists from all corners of the globe. The animation database has now completed its proof of concept phase, and volunteers are working nearly every day to build it out as quickly as possible.”

I think it is high time we have an archive for Indian animation as well. The history of Indian animation doesn’t go back as far as perhaps the history of World animation does. All the same, we have had some brilliant work done, especially in the black and white era of television. How do today’s Indian animators and audiences get access to these?

Perhaps some of us born in the 60s and 70s might remember seeing “Swimmy”, “Tree of Life” and “Ek Titli, Anek Titliyan” in the days of Doordarshan. I would love to see those again and also learn more about the makers, but there is no information available readily.

Those were times when most of the Indian animation was original. The animators back then tried to develop their own style, experiment with the medium. It was new to them. They revelled in the art. Today, much of our animation is Disney/Pixar ‘wannabe’. If we could view and study the work that was done by our predecessors, it would inspire the current generation of Indian animators to create their own animation style instead of limiting themselves to pre-established styles.

Sadly, all we ever do is lament what is missing. There is an urgent need to start archiving our own animation and recording the history of animation in India. With a little bit of help from the government and active participation of those in the know, it won’t take too long to build this kind of archive. Preservation and presentation are both equally critical. Else we will keep churning out poor imitations of Hollywood animation and feel proud for doing it well!