Make no mistake about it. The Indian animation industry is evolving!
The progress is not only in volumes, but is also indicated by the number of small and mid sized studios that are gearing up for creating original content. One such studio is Dream Forest Films. Animation ‘xpress touched base with the directors at DFF and here’s what the studio is up to…
Headed by seasoned animation professionals Sanjiv Waeerkar and Simi Nallaseth, DFF has charted plans for developing original content on a grand scale.
Elaborating on DFF’s plans, Sanjiv informed, “We are working on a 3D feature meant for the global audience and plan to have a theatrical release. The bound script for our movie is ready. We are trying to rope in venture capital partners and producers.”
“During her stint at Blue Sky Studios (USA) my partner Simi witnessed how 20th Century Fox came in and made ICE Age a reality and we too are very positive about our plans.” he added.
Simi Nallaseth commented, “Since inception, DFF has been creating original animation for commercials and currently we are also working on the pre production of a 2D Malaysian feature.”
The atmosphere at DFF is relaxed and conducive to creativity, Sanjiv and Simi are grooming members from within their own team to grow and take on more responsibility, so that they can concentrate more on the feature.
Currently consisting of a team of 16, DFF has adopted a unique method for handling their assignments. The studio consistently makes presentations to creative heads of agencies to make them aware of the creative liberties that animation offers. Upon bagging an assignment, Simi and Sanjiv decide on the creatives, style and flow and then hand over the project to the team who implement it. At times, if the need arises, floating freelance talent is called in and involved.
“We like to experiment with various styles and for each assignment. We get in specialists to work on projects after we have frozen on the styles, story, creatives etc. A majority of the Indian studios record voice generically without sync. We do sync. We make our voice actors act out while recording. DFF also has an in house R&D department, which researches and decides on various techniques and also into the background of a character if need be.” commented Sanjiv.
“We also plan to maintain a database of talent, not of bio-datas but of their individual art work and skills. Each artist has his/her core strengths, when and as the need arises we will refer to our database and source talent.” he added.
At face value one wonders if a 16 member strong studio which has been doing commercials can successfully make a leap to making a feature. But if the credentials and backgrounds of the partners are taken into account, things do seem to fit in place.
A graduate from the Raheja School of art, Sanjiv was exposed to illustration and art right since childhood, courtesy his father the late Ram Waeerkar who was one of the country’s most prolific illustrators of his time, having done more than a 100 titles for the Amar Chitra Katha. Sanjiv himself did illustrations for Tinkle and ACK to make a little pocket money while in college. He joined Ram Mohan biographics in 1991 as a background artist and also doubled up as in betweener. In 1996 Ram Mohan offered him a partnership and when RM/USL the joint venture between Ram Mohan and UTV’s Ronnie Screwvala was formed, Sanjiv was on board as a director and was supervising the operations out there, he witnessed the scaling up of the workforce from 100 to 425 and the downsizing too. In 2002 Sanjiv moved out and started pursuing the intention of creating original animation. His plans for original work further recieved a boost when Simi Nallaseth joined hands early this year and they started Dream Forest Films.
Sophiaite Simi Nallaseth too began her career at Ram Mohan Biographics as early as in 1987, she left in ’89 to pursue a degree at the School of Visual Arts, New York. One of her professors out there was Chris Wedge, director of ICE Age. For 10 years Simi stayed in the US creating animation for commercials and fillers, in between making short films which were her passion. In 99 she joined Blue Sky Studios and worked as a character animator for ICE Age.
Though Animation is a highly laborious and collaborative work, Individuals always have played critical roles in making things happen. We at Animation ‘xpress believe that the duo at DFF has conviction and wish them well at their efforts.