The world of Indian animation will soon see the rise of a new anti-hero in Rise of the Valiant Indrajeet created by Bengaluru based Thought Cloud Studio. The inspiration behind the studio is the team’s common love for telling uncommon stories from Indian history and mythology. They strongly believe that Indian mythology is a treasure trove of stories that hasn’t been explored or experienced.
“We have stories and legacies of 1000s of years that have been untold and what better way to bring them to life than using animation. We can bring to life not only the story but also the culture, heritage, the way of life and make the audience go back in time and learn a thing or two from the past. We can give the audience an entire experience through animation,” expounds Thought Cloud Studio director – business, sales and marketing Ganesh Papanna, exclusively to AnimationXpress.com.
The studio started operations in 2014 after a roller coaster ride like any other start up; and has ever since focused on developing original Indian content with IP that can be showcased globally as well as locally. The studio claims that its USP is in interweaving technology with great story telling. The current team consists of 30 people including contractors and freelancers, with the core team consisting of G Venugopal (creative director); Vijayalakshmi NS (studio director); Gautham Kalathur (director) and Priyank MK (lead).
Talking about the current project Rise of the Valiant Indrajeet, Ganesh adds: “It is a short animated film on how Meghanada – Ravana’s son – defeats the immortals and the God of Gods, Indra to become one of the most celebrated warriors in the epic Ramayana. We have worked with over 30 artists, which include the contractors and freelancers. We followed the Maya production pipeline and Nuke for the execution of this venture.”
Ganesh believes story telling in Indian epics and mythologies is type casted keeping in mind the protagonist of some main characters like Rama, Krishna, Hanuman, Arjuna, Bheema etc. “However our Indian mythologies are vast and have many shades of characters. In different point of views, stories are justified differently. Hence everything seems good or bad in different perspectives and point of views. Thus we are focused on many fascinating, extraordinary untold stories of great unsung characters,” reveals he.
The project has taken about 24 months since inception with large pre-production repository to use in further episodes. The studio chose 3D Animation medium as it felt it was most appropriate to work in the style which brings about very intricate details of the characters.
On prospects of dubbing it in various languages for better market penetration, Ganesh adds: “Since it is an animation project, the language used is English. Our story telling is more an action play than a dialogue play; hence it can be easily converted or dubbed to any language.”
The studio is currently scouting for partners and buyers to release the movie on TV, digital and mobile platforms. “We hope to have a good revenue inflow from the broadcasters, production houses, royalties, IP, merchandise and gaming peripherals. The focus is on creating affordable animation with quick turnaround time,” he informs.
The studio believes that the animation industry is maturing and well accepted by the global audience. “This industry breaks the geographical and demographical barrier when it comes to viewership. Audience has set very high expectations and hence it is becoming very important for any animation company to emphasise quality and storytelling, while keeping it affordable for investors and distributors,” ends Ganesh.