AnimationXpress.com is celebrating the spirit of International Women’s Day by saluting the Women in Animation and Comics Sectors of Indian Entertainment Industry.
We asked Charuvi Agrawal, Gayatri Rao, Manisha Mohan, Reena Puri, Shilpa Ranade and Tehzeeb Khurana on what is latest with them and their vision for 2014
Charuvi Agrawal, Founder, Charuvi Design Labs
After Hanuman Chalisa, we had involved the team extensively into R&D and Experimentations. Currently we are working with a few advt. agencies & production companies in India and abroad respectively. This year, CDL has some interesting television episodes lined up and currently filtering out scripts for feature length films. We are working a few things out
, and maybe collaboration with performance artists is in the list. We are working on few interesting artworks and interactive pieces as well.
We have a long way to go as an industry which needs to churn out original content. Having said that our future is glorious since the ratio of children is ever growing and asa society we love family entertainment. It’s just the matter of evolving and making quirky stories. Focus this year is mainly Client based work, TV Series, International Advert and definitely more experimentation.
Animation is an ever challenging medium, where there is no limitation to what can be explored. Considering the industry is at its nascent stage, there are tons of opportunities to make your mark. All that a creative person requires is exploration to fuel their imaginations.
Believe in taking risk and slogging hard. Do the best and better then the best. Just be original!
Gayatri Rao- Founder & Director, Animagic
Animagic has been a beautiful dream studio that one has been nurturing for the last 17 yrs. Starting with the success of Raju & I, to playing creative producer on our first 2 features- Tripura n Swami Ayyappan, it’s been a long & very precarious journey of preserving the integrity of this creative act. In the process of battling the Demons of mythology, we have been developing many projects that I am overseeing. These will extend the journey of awareness we began with Raju & I into other social and spiritual arenas.
For most artists and this is especially true of women-filmmakers in animation, their work is an extension of who they are. So for me Animagic itself is work-in-progress and the studio & the films we make are a reflection of our own journey in animation & life. In keeping with that, we can look forward to stories about the ecology, spirituality and dogs! All of this and more in the coming few years… It’s going to be another long haul…
I want to wish all the girls & women in animation all the best for their endeavors… it’s not an easy field to work in, to survive and to succeed. But the feminine energies bring out the sensitive aspects of life in art, which is very welcome in a field dominated by superheroes, Monsters & machines! Go girls!!
Manisha Mohan- Senior Vice President-Design & Animation, Tata Interactive Systems
Presently, I’m working a range of different projects along with my team. We are doing some interesting motion graphic work and Unity 3D games. Apart from that – as always we are using animation for the purpose of education. One exciting project that we are working on is creating animated educational CDs for children in village and municipal schools to teach them English. I am proud to say that we have reached over 1500 schools and children are enjoying learning from these programs.
The animated literacy program for children might be interesting to see. Or more so – it would be interesting to see the positive feedback from children in our municipal schools who are now gaining confidence in communicating in English.
Also, working on some interesting proposals right now – and hoping to get some exciting projects which will offer fun and challenging work for more and more talented animators.
It’s inspiring to see the good work done by the Animation Studios as well as the independent animation film makers both internationally and in India. It’s also a pleasure to be part of an industry where you have like – minded people with a common passion for taking the field of animation forward.
Reena Puri- Editor, Amar Chitra Katha
There are a number of projects which include mythology, history and literature. Some are in the scripting stage and for others illustrations are in progress. It is like working on multiple conveyer belts – there may be research happening on one subject even while we are packing up another for print.
We have some mythology planned out for the next releases as well as history. You will definitely see the second part of our Ramayana series soon. It is called Ayodhya Kand.
Searching for and honoring good talent in the field of scripting and illustrations is vision of this year.
There are two aspects that inspire me. First is the work itself. The world of comics is one that straddles writing, art, color and movement. Seeing a story, transform from being pure narrative to colorful visuals that move and talk on paper is almost like a miracle. It is a world of pure creativity where the writer’s mind creates the platform for the artist’s imagination.
The other is our reader. The enthusiasm, support and appreciation that we get from the people who read our work is my ‘high’. I get to talk to children, teenagers, young parents and readers from the 70s. Their trust in our product and their expectations from us is humbling and inspiring at the same time.
Shilpa Ranade, Director, Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya
I am beginning work on an animation film based on the life of Buddha and the wall murals at Ajanta, apart from continuing to teach and am also doing illustration for children’s books. Also, I’m working on a short animation based on a piece of literature; hopefully this is what i will finish first.
I am taking my recently completed feature film, Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya, to as many festivals and forums as possible and working towards wider dissemination and a possible theatrical release this year.
The animation industry has always lauded individual independent effort and I see that as very encouraging and inspiring. I have received acknowledgement and appreciation for my work from the industry.
Tehzeeb Khurana- Founder, Toon Club
We at Toon Club are working on 4 short animation films with students of Ecole Mondiale World School. 2 of these are in association with Salaam Mumbai & are based on the issue of anti-smoking/tobacco. The other two films are based on Approaches to Learning. Hopefully we’ll be ready with these films in the next couple of months.
Focus for 2014 is to work with more schools and organizations and create many more meaningful animation films with children :)
The Animation Industry of today is an interesting place to be in. In the current scenario, you can’t afford to be complacent. It keeps you on your toes, makes you re-invent & challenge yourself. You have be at your creative best. More energy, more passion, more adventure!! Fortunately, we animators are a positive bunch of people. Nothing stops us! :)
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