Produced by Anushvi Productions and Pune based Phoebus Media, the 115 minute 2D animated feature Dashavtar is set for its all India theatrical release early 2008.
Sporting the baseline “Every Era Has Its Hero”, Dashavtar as the name explains, revolves around the ten avatars of Vishnu in every Yuga. Close to 60 artists were involved in the development and production of the feature which has been indigenously created in India right from Script to Screen.
Produced by Vimal Shah, Co Produced by Rahul Bakshi and directed by Bhavik Thakore, credits for the feature include Narration by Shatrughan Sinha, Voices by Shreyas Talpade, Ashish Vidyarthi, Sachin Khedekar, Tom Alter and Roopali Ganguly, Screenplay by Bhavik & Supriya Thakore, Animation direction by Abhijit Nene, Dialogues by Hriday Lani, Music by Anand Kurekar and sound design by Vishwadeep Chaterjee. The songs in the film have been sung by Shankar Mahadevan, Kunal Ganjawalla, Shaan, K.K., Shreya Goshal and Sanjeev Abhyankar.
The film which is a pioneering effort by its producers got into production in June 2005, which was a few months before Hanuman released and became the first Indian animated success. A jubiliant Rahul Bakshi, CEO of Phoebus Media and Co Producer of the film shared with AnimationXpress.com, “Animation is a teamsport and the fact that our feature is all set for release is becuase of the fabulous team effort. And by team I mean the artists at Phoebus as well as all the other creative, technical and production talent involved in the film as well as my colleagues at Anushvi Productions”
Talking about the thirty month journey of the feature‘s development life cycle, Bakshi shared, “Our journey of 2 and a half years has been full of twists and turns. There were challenges in all aspects – subject selection, team building, acquiring technical expertise and getting good distributors. Before Hanuman, the animation film industry was practically non-existent…and if there was anyone, the distributors refused to acknowledge him. Getting the personnel with the right skill sets was tough, because animation at that point in time was service oriented rather than IP creation, in India”
“But things change. Today, the audience is ready for a film with such a large canvas. The market too has matured. It’s funny that the same audience could accept western animation films, but the release of Hanuman paved the way for Indian animation films.” he added.
On being asked about distribution, Bakshi pointed out “We are commencing our trade activity with a big splash from tomorrow with full page ads in all the major trade magazines across Hindi, Tamil and Telugu . We are in negotiations with distributors and Dashavtar will also be digitally distributed”
The Director Talks
Bhavik Thakore – The director of Dashavtar shared some of his comments about the film with AnimationXpress
Dashavatar is an interesting subject with tremendous cinematic potential. It is a filmmakers delight i Using my creative freedom to the best, and the ability to visualize beyond the realms of imagination we have a very interesting creation. It has all the trappings of a magnum opus with larger than life characters – Lord Vishnu and His 10 Avatars…demon kings, opulent settings, songs, action, special effects as well as the dramatic narrative all neatly encompassed in a 2 hr film
About the Story
Simply put, as the title suggests, Dashavatar is the story of Lord Vishnu’s 10 incarnations.How they descend to earth to rid the world of evil and save mankind. We have, through the screenplay, made the film appealing both for children as well as adults. It has a very interesting story telling pattern in which the old world sensitivities would appeal to the modern mind.
To put it in a single sentence – Dashavatar is the all-encompassing epic that celebrates the recurring triumph of good over evil – ten fold!
It is an energising experience that shows how some of the darkest powers on earth were eradicated by the most popular heroes from the past, present and even the future…
Dashavatar weaves together the fascinating stories of Ram, Krishna, Parshuram, Vaman, Narsimha, Buddha…and also the tales of Vishnu in earlier avatars – Matsya, Kurma and Varaha…and yes, finally – Kalki Avatar!
About the Songs
Supriya Thakore who has co written the screenplay as well as been actively involved in managing the production shared, “This is probably the first time that an animation film has the whole quota of songs – from a bhakti geet to a romance sequence…a lingering song of seduction/a mythological item number and a powerful title song. The songs have been written by today’s rising poet, Sandeep Khare and composed by debutant music director, Anand Kurhekar. The tunes and the lyrics shall remain in the minds and on the lips of the audience for a long time.”
From an animation production and technical point of view, the songs were the most challenging shots to execute. They had to have lucid movements that had to look natural, human. We had to go for extensive reference hunting to get some of the dance movements right, especially the Raas song.
Rahul Bakshi concluded by sharing that no stone was left unturned in the making the feature film, “Dashavtar has been made with some of the best talents in the industry. The Sound Design for Dashavtar has been done by award winning sound designer Biswadeep Chaterjee who has films like Devdas, Laage Raho Munnabhai ,Choker Bali , Parineeta, Laaga Chunri Mein Daag etc to his credit.The film has been made entirely at our studio in Pune. No work has been outsourced. We have a very talented team who respect quality and have zeal, passion and enthusiasm to give their best and to that end Phoebus has been very lucky. Only the post production work has been carried out in Mumbai. For mixing we have used the services of YRF studios and the rerecording has been done by Mr. Anuj Mathur who has been associated with Yash Raj Films and has mixed the recent hit â€?Chak De’ besides many other films.”
Way to go!