Reliance Animation’s Animated Feature Film Krishna aur Kans has won the Best Feature Film Award at the Expotoons International Animation festival held in Argentina between 13th to 15th November 2013. Expotoons is the most representative animation Festival in Latin America. A reference for the whole industry: professionals, creative people, producers, animation artists, communication studies, advertising agencies, TV channels, technology companies, animation schools, suppliers and students. Its objective is to spread Animation as a growth engine for cultural and audiovisual industry, creating a space for exchanging trends, technology, knowledge, artistic proposals and experiences from different countries.
The movie was also amongst the top 21 Animated Feature Films qualifying for the first round at the 85th Academy Awards “Oscars” in 2013.
Expressing happiness on the win at Expotoons, Dr. Ashish Kulkarni, CEO, Reliance Animation, shares his thoughts with AnimationXpress.com saying, “It is indeed a great feeling that all the teams hard work for several years is getting appreciated not only in India but all around the globe. It is amazing how audience from Latin America have taken a great liking for “Krishna” . It is again a win for animation from India, as we said earlier that the format can go beyond boundaries and Indian animation can carve a niche in digital content era.”
The movie was also nominated in the Feature Film for Children- Competitive at the The 21th edition of the International Animation Festival of Brazil, ANIMA MUNDI 2013, that took place in the two biggest Brazilian cities, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and traveled through other Brazilian cities afterwards in its “on tour” version. Krishna aur Kans was awarded consolation prize at Anima Mundi 2013.
At Anima Mundi 2013 competitive and informative screenings present shorts and feature films of the most diverse genres, that came all over the world were showcased at this festival. The Open Workshop brought instant and free animation workshops for the general public. The Animated Chat presented in person the greatest names of international animation. And the Anima Forum gathered the animation professionals for panels, lectures, workshops and business.
When asked Dr. Ashish about the gripping aspects of the film, he says, “The very storyline of Legends of Krishna which are undisputedly time tested stories for over 5000+ years is the key. What matters the most is the quality of production , detailing and research efforts that the creating teams put-in to the project. More over if one has to single out the most well known character out of India which has made impact over the years even beyond the people of Indian origin– internationally: Krishna is that one character. ”
“We really need to see while marketing and distributing the films, as to how well we are able to built the image of the animated subject-character brands. Hence dealing with the well know Indian heritage character to start with is a no brainer. Then the overall packaging, its music, colour direction, voice direction etc was extremely critical. Thirdly, we had as many as six animated feature films released from India in the last year. For the first time ever Indian animation feature films were on the Oscars and several other international film festivals. This buzz definitely helps create interests amongst the global audience to look out for Indian animated content. Finally, it is the dedication and hard work of over 1200 artists, researchers & producers who put together such a magnum opus creation called “Krishna Aur Kans”.”continues, Dr. Ashish S K.
A close look at other accolades grabbed by the movie show us that Winner-ASIFA Mumbai Special Jury Award 2012 for Feature Film, Winner-Bhopal International Film Festival 2013 for Best Animated Feature Film ,Winner at Lucknow International Film Festival 2013 for Best Animated Feature Film, Winner-Dadasabeb Phalke Film Festival Noida 2013 For Best Animated Feature Film.
So whats the vision of Ashish after win at Expotoons, he shares,”Our vision is to keep making such unique well researched animation content from Reliance Animation and constantly explore its reach globally, by dubbing it in several other languages. If we are able to move Indian Animation from its default positioning as Kids content to “Family entertainment” then all will win.
We need to have a rock solid home base of audience and animation content consumption to regain confidence to constantly get encouraged for creation of new animated character brands from India.”
Elaborating on the current projects happening at Reliance Animation, Ashish, informs, “We have just delivered 26 half an hour episodes of “Shaktimaan- The cyber-yogic hero from India” toViacom 18. ”
“We are now exploring one more season of “Shaktimaan” & a new preschool TV series called “BIG Bee’s” which is about “Wonders of Nature” which are 52 eleven mins episodes.”, concludes, Dr. Ashish S K
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