With an amazing day winding up with interesting and knowledge filled session, the second day of Anifest 2018 saw the enthusiastic crowd gathering for yet another eventful day.
Day two began with screening of two beautiful animated shorts. A cute love story between two animals made way to another heart touching love story of attachment between a widower and his dead wife’s shadow (Chhaya).
The auditorium filled soon and the first session commenced with the core team from Disney India and Ice Candy talking about the development of the popular show, Simple Samosa. Disney India’s content head Devika Prabhu said, ” The characters are the ones who brings the story to life and you start growing into them.” The animated series is soon coming up with the second season after gathering more than 25 million kids as their fans. Launched in four languages including English, Hindi, Telgu and Tamil, Simple Samosa was a collaborative effort of Sanjeev Waeerkar and the core team of Disney India which included Prabhu and Ravi Acharya.
The next session was inspiring with independent animator Krishna Chandran talking about his journey and showing audience some incredible work with his short films like Chandran’s Cafe, Echo, Funny Fish (winner of eight awards). A graduate from NID, Chandran’s story of creating a place in the animation world is a true inspiration.
The enthralling event wouldn’t have taken place without the many hands involved. And hence, a felicitation ceremony of the volunteers to encourage them was applauded by all.
Just like last day, today as well the audience got a chance to witness the screening and vote for their favourite film. Independent Professional category saw various animated shorts like A.C. Teri Khudgarzi, Bear Sailor, Coco’s Day, Gullak, Haenyo, Let them have Cheese and Tesera. The list for commissioned category was huge and it included TVCs.
The hunger pangs gave way to a short lunch break as the after session was an interesting case study by Abhishek Verma. His animated shorts had a different angle to it which kept the audience glued to their seats. Verma showcased two shorts, Luka Chhupi and Maccher Jhol. The audience were in awe when Verma mentioned that Luka Chhupi was created in just 17 days.
TASI announced the first winner of the Bhimsain Emerging Talent Award ( BET) which honoured Suyog Khadilkar with the winner trophy and prize money of Rs 1 lakh and a special grant of Rs 50,000 was given to Suchana Saha for her animated short Maa Tuki.
The audience got to know more about another Open Source software, Krita with a fun informative session by Vaanarsena Studio founder Vivek Ram. He also showed the audience few episodes from his short series Myth-o-katha.
The Viewer’s Choice Awards took place soon after with the best shorts winning. Maa Tuki was the winner with The Stained Club standing at the runner up position in the student film category. The Independent professional winner film was Let Them Have Cheese and Gullak was announced the runner up. Moment of Clarity won the winner title in the commissioned film category and Kinara backed the runner-up award.
At the end of the Anifest, Nirmal David, Dileep Verma, the makers of upcoming game Bot Rods, has exhibited their expertise from creating IPs to giving life to the animated characters into a complete gaming arcade. The world of Bot Rods is inhabited by adorable characters from many species and their equally lovable Bots which are actually their robot vehicles. The game is about all-out racing and using a trick or two to slow down your opponents, including quirky weapon pods and downright ramming opponents to slow them down. The game to launch in early 2019 on Xbox, PC and Nintendo Switch and with that they are planning to launch TV series as well as short animated films of the same IP.
With a baggage of knowledge and many fun moments to cherish, Anifest 2018 closed it curtains after two creativity filled days, only to be back next year with much more grandeur.
