You can visit the Classic Animation website here.

What happens after a year remains to be seen. By then, if the situation is improving outside of the industry as well, then one couldn’t be asking for more.

The subject of recession particularly pertaining to the Indian Animation industry has been addressed before in this blog. Read here.

Sources from the company revealed that VCL, which is a division of Tata Elxsi, plans to increase its headcount from the present 300 to 1500 animators and special effects artists over the next three years. Having completed ‘Roadside Romeo’ they are now working on three more animation films, TV shows for Germany and bidding for large Hollywood projects.
VCL has already established itself as a force to reckon with having created the special effects for several Hollywood and Bollywood films like ‘Ironman’, ‘Ghostrider’, ‘Spiderman 3′, ‘One Night with the King’ and ‘Drona’, ‘Kidnap’, ‘Bachna Ae Haseeno’, ‘Jodhaa Akbar’, ‘Taare Zameen Par’, ‘Rang De Basanti’ & ‘Dhoom 2′. ‘Roadside Romeo’ marked their foray into animated feature films.

I’ll keep you posted as more details are revealed.

Singapore based Toonz Entertainment, which owns the Indian animation studio Toonz Animation India, has tied up with Gang of 7 Animation USA and Hyde Park Entertainment USA to produce a CG animated feature film “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus”, based on the classic book by L. Frank Baum, the creator of ‘The Wizard of Oz’.
Apparently, this is the first time a story explaining Santa Claus and all the Christmas traditions has ever come to the big screen. The movie chronicles the life of Santa Claus and will be directed by Tom Tataranowicz, Rich Arons and Dick Sebast, who have supervised Disney, Marvel and Hanna Barbera features. A supporting team of artists, who have worked on pictures like ‘Finding Nemo’, ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Iron Giant’, will also work on the Santa Claus movie.

The project is currently in its pre-production stage, with production set to commence in November at Toonz’ Technopark campus. The movie is expected to be released in time for Christmas 2010. Hyde Park will distribute it internationally and share North American rights with G7 Animation. Looks like mythology will just not let go of its spell on Indian animators!

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.

Created by Shemaroo Entertainment and Sun Animatics for the animated ‘Ghatothkach - Master of Magic’, the character - Ghatothkach has been adopted by PETA as the Official Brand Ambassador for their ‘Save The Elephant’ campaign.

The announcement was made at music launch function of the movie which is all set to release on this Friday, the 23rd of May. The story, direction and music for the film are by veteran director, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, who is known for films like ‘Pushpak’, ‘Appu Raja’, ‘Mayuri’ and ‘Son Of Aladdin’. The 90 minute long, 2D animated feature is a collaboration between Shemaroo and Sun Animatics.

Credit must be given to the producers of the film who are going all out to promote Ghatothkach. The film will be released internationally in UK, USA and UAE, dubbed in Hindi, English, Tamil and Malayalam, screened at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival, adapted to mobile and online games and advertised all over the country through every possible medium. The mascot will visit malls and multiplexes, there are tie-ups with McDonalds and Chandamama and a plethora of merchandising options being exploited. The music, as always, is being heavily promoted.

Whether the Indian Animation Industry meets international standards in terms of animation quality or not, it sure has come of age as far as marketing , promoting and merchandising the characters and films is concerned (In other words, it is finally learning to make money from animated films!)

I sincerely hope that the animation is as good as the character design seen in the promos, or else for true animation fans aching to see drool-worthy Indian animation, the wait is long and arduous. All I can say to them (and myself ) until then is…

Shree Ganesh! Hare Krishna! Jai Hanuman!

(picture copyright : Shemaroo Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.)

This is what a visibly pleased Biren Ghose, CEO & President of Kahani World, had to say from Cannes, where the company is showcasing its bouquet of 7 spanking new films with a distinct ‘Eastern flavour’ but targeted at a worldwide audience.

In the next 2 years, Kahani World, which is headquartered in Canada, will produce 7 films specially targeted at the three viewer segments of kids, tweens and teens. The content will be extended to various platforms, including dynamic new media.

Here’s a quick look at the slate of films:

Secrets of Seven Sounds, a Deepak Chopra and Shekhar Kapur production, in a joint venture with Virgin Comics.

Raju the Rickshaw predicted to be the Asian successor to ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’.

Coderman, a new kind of superhero film for tweens.

Chipkali World - The Gecko Adventures, a pioneering inter-relationship between our world and exposing the unknown ‘parallel world’ of Geckos.

Game Access - a movie that endeavors to probe into the world of video games. Co produced with Nelson Recinos, two time Emmy award winner for Spielberg’s ‘Pinky & the Brain’ and the Batman animated series.

I Prin an enchanting story of three young girls groomed to become princesses at Academie Royal, a multimedia property, co produced with Sieundesign, Korea. I Prin is also the 1st animated IMAX movie being made in India.

Ashati - the Asian Princess an Asian teenage ‘girl hero’ story, ‘crafted’ by Srinivas Krishna, a celebrated Toronto based film Director.

Kahani World is spearheaded by Biren Ghose, CEO & President, who has been ranked as one of the 25 Asian Toon Titans of 2008. .“Kahani World will pioneer animation movies with distinct & contemporary Indian themes in a ‘platter’ that makes families laugh, learn and grow together,” says Biren. He also adds, “We have the most diverse movie pipeline in animation due to the three years we have spent investing in the finest talent and technologies. In a country where, for the next 30 years, 30% of the population will be below the age of 25, we feel we are in the perfect position to crest this new wave!”

For more on each of the films, visit the Kahani World website - www.kahaniworld.com

SEE THE TRAILER

The name of the film is a clever play on words (an ant is called a Cheenti in Hindi) and has absolutely nothing to do with the 1964 Ian Fleming book - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or the 1968 film by the same name. It is actually based on ‘Lal Kalo’ (Red Black), a popular Bengali children’s novel by Girindrashekhar Basu.

After an investment of two years and rupees five crore, I just hope that the story is well crafted and engrossing. The characters are quite intriguing and very colourful and it looks like the creators have deliberately given the film a children’s illustrated novel feel. Personally, I am happy for two reasons:
1) That they have strayed off the beaten track of mythology.
2) They have maintained an Indian Folk Art style in the look of the film and not tried to just ape Disney.The lip sync seems a bit off in the online trailers, but I do not want to judge them by that at this point. Here are some more clips from the film - all of them songs (How can any Indian film be complete without song and dance routines and dream sequences?!!)

C2B2 is the story of two warring kingdoms of ants (red ants and black ants) the twist being that Lohit, the Prince of the red ants and Krishna, the Princess of the black ants are in love with each other. The film works on the premise that - War Never Pays and that unity and peace are the driving factors of a nation’s health.

The characters have been sketched manually in the classical style by a team of 80 animators. The six songs in the film have been sung by the likes of Ustad Rashid Khan, Shaan and Shreya Ghosal. The post-production, including dubbing, has been done at Fiesta’s studio in Mumbai. Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang features the voices of well-known actors like Ashish Vidyarthi, Mahesh Manjrekar, Asrani and Anjan Srivastava.

A sequel is also in the offing, besides which they are also planning a 3-D film based on Dwarkaprasad Chetri’s ‘Bhootnath’.

The Elecom group is based in Kolkata. Fiesta is a Mumbai-based complete post-production facility, which in the last three years has been involved in the post-production of major Bollywood blockbusters like Munnabhai MBBS, Lage Raho Munnabhai, Corporate, Bhoot, Koi Mil Gaya, Iqbaal, Murder, Hum Tum, Kaho Na Pyar Hai etc. Ellecom Fiesta Entertainment Private Ltd. is the collaboration between these two companies for the sake of producing animation films.

Click here to visit the C2B2 website

CG Meetup - Animation Case Studies

This Saturday, 4 studios are coming together to present an interesting ‘behind the scenes’ look at some Indian and international animation projects that they have worked on.

- Crest Animation Studio
- Famous House of Animation
- Graphiti Multimedia
- Rhythm & Hues

Date: 29th March, 2008
Time: 4:30 pm to 8:30 pm
Venue: National College, Linking Road, Bandra (W), Mumbai

Expect to see technical shot breakdowns in detail, behind the scenes videos, approaches and solutions along with a whole lot of fun stuff. Just like all other CG Meetups organized by ASIFA India, this one is sure to be a houseful as well!

ENTRY IS FREE!! Click on the image to view the poster and get all the details. Register by writing to cgmeetup@asifa.in

The recruitment drive is going to be held on a national level. The first stop will be Hyderabad from 22nd to 24th Feb 2008. Graphiti is also looking out for professionals from Chennai and Bangalore.

Tilak Shetty - CEO & Director, Graphiti, said, “We are proud that our vision of creating original content is now showing results. We want to show the world that India has the talent and the expertise to make good animation films on par with the world animation. We need a lot of young talent to join us.”

Munjal Shroff - COO & Director, Graphiti said, “Over the years, we have built Graphiti as an organization that delivers quality animation by concentrating on original content. Graphiti has a unique combination of technical expertise and creative excellence. We have already begun the recruitment process for professionals with suitable experience for senior positions.”

Ram Mohan - Chairman, said, “I invite all the young talent to join me and create original content”

Interested people can send their resumes and showreels and register their seat for interviews in Hyderabad. There will also be walk-in interviews.

The person to contact is Pooja.

Address: Graphiti Multimedia Pvt. Ltd.
122, Udyog Mandir no 1, Bhagoji Keer Marg, Mahim West. Mumbai 400016
Telephone: 022 - 24441580 / 82
Email: jobs@graphiti.net
Website: www.graphiti.net

Schedule
Date: 22nd – 24th Feb 2008
Venue: Banquet Hall, Comfort Inn Woodbridge
11-4-649/C, A. C. Guards, Lakdi-ka-Pul,
Hyderabad.
Timing: 9:00 am onwards

For more information about this send an email to poojab@graphiti.net