‘Hanuman 2’, sequel to the first Indian animated blockbuster Hanuman has been announced.
Budgeted in the range of Rs 9-12 Crore, with a release scheduled for Diwali 2007, the sequel is to be co produced by Percept Picture Company and Toonz Animation India on a 50:50 financial investment.
Hanuman 2 will be directed by V G Samant the director of the original Hanuman.
Speaking to Animation ‘xpress, Percept Picture Company COO Mahesh Ramanathan said,” Hanuman 2 is another PPC endavor to ensure that Indian animation industry creates waves as creator of original content than just as a service provider to International companies. This is also part of our commitment to make Hanuman a universal animation entertainment property in terms of value and appeal”
“Toonz Animation India is one of the most respected animation studios in India and is known for its high quality output. We share the same vision in terms of original content and look forward to working along with Toonz to achieve our goals” he added.
Toonz Animation India CEO P Jayakumar told Animation ‘xpress,”With this announcement, Toonz Animation India which was one of the earliest movers in the field of original Indian content has continued its thrust on original content and high value co productions.We are extremely thrilled to be working with Percept which is a very strong player in the Indian Movie and Entertainment business. The character of Hanuman is very inspirational and cuts across kids and adults alike. The plan is to make it in CGI but chances are that we shall use a combination of both 2D as well as 3D. The pre production will take six months’ time”
Sharing the marketing and merchandising plans which are being laid early this time, Percept’s Ramanathan stated,”We will also have marketing innovations ready for Hanuman 2 where merchandise will come out much earlier than the film. PPC will also ensure that mechanisms around alternate revenue streams are in place. Hanuman is a friend of the children and the idea is to let children have access to their friend through various means like mobile games, online games, merchandise and so on. We have a distribution alliance with a well known merchandise manafacturer & distributor with whom we are able to reach all across the country”
“We have always believed that there is a huge demand supply gap in what Indian children want and what producers are giving. There is a huge market that needs to be addressed. A third of the country is below 16 years of age and it makes a lot of business sense too to tap this segment. We see Hanuman as a powerful indian story told to Indian children the Indian way. Hanuman was a great film but it is also a movement , look at all the FILMS Awards, we want that the film awards should have separate category for kids movies. Hanuman has done better than Neel N Nikki, EK Ajnabee, Chocalate and other films at the Box Office” he added.
“I think success of Hanuman should inspire Indian animation studios and animators to create original content rather than service international animation studios. Only then will Indian animators get their due place under the Sun” concluded Ramanathan.
With the announcement of Hanuman 2, Toonz Animation India has yet again reinstated its thrust on original Indian content which began many years ago with Tenali Raman. The studio had recently announced its animated TV series co production Geet Mahabharat with Impact Vision. The studio has also begun production on itsr next TV series titled, �The Adventures of Hanuman� (not to be mistaken with Hanuman 2 the movie). This action/adventure series will be a blend of 2D and 3D technology throughout its 13 half hour episodes.
Amongst other projects on its slate include a 52 episode series with Canadian, French and British partners, a full-length feature film project �Tommy and Oscar, The Movie’ for Rainbow Studios, Italy and a television series called �Willo MediaFactory India to showcase Magik screener at Cannes
21 April 2006 11:50 AM
Headed by Aashish Chanana, Mumbai based Film production company MediaFactoryIndia has announced the kickstarting of production for its completely CG animated feature Magik. The company is planning to showcase a five minute screener of the film at the Cannes Festival in May.
Speaking to Animation `xpress, Chanana who is an animator himself and has been in the post production, graphics and film business for the past ten years said, “We have been working on the pre production of Magik for the past one year and only after we had a bound script in hand and character designs ready, did we get into production which has recently begun. The storyline revolves around five kids and their adventures, their aspirations and how they solve problems together and there`s a lot of magic too. Our target audience that is Kids from all around the globe will identify with the the theme as well as treatment which is universal”
Since Magik is a complex proposition with an international audience and markets, the company is also looking at global marketing and exploring areas of in-film placements / character creations all the way to product merchandising.
Chanana also commented on the need for better film marketing mechanisms in India, saying “The film marketing space needs a lot more experienced players to get in. As a company Digital Media Factory is good in creating the content, but we`d like to work with a strong mediator who could identify the exact TG, and market the product in the most strong way to them. Crores and crores of Rupees are spent in Bollywood on creating content and on the technical part, but there is a strong need for developing an evolved film marketing mechanism for films”
“I hope that the Shringars and PVRs of the world will further increase their thrust on areas such as these” he added.
The animation production is being done by Media Factory Graphics, which is the animation and VXF arm of MediaFactory India. Animation and visual effects veteran Biju D, who has helmed affairs for projects like Jajantram Mamantram as well as Friends Forever is heading the entire CG production, while Aashish Chanana will direct the feature. The story is written by Sanjiv Puri.
A very interesting aspect of this project which has a production schedule of 18 months, is the fact that the CG production team will consist of only 35 artists.
The very experienced (by Indian CG Standards) Biju pointed out,”I am very confident that we can do a very good job as well as pull off this project with a small team of 35 artists. Rather than taking in freshers as well as semi experienced people we have already contracted some of the most experienced artists in the country. The point I am making is that when you have a mix of freshers, semi experienced and experienced artists, there is a lot of hand holding required which affects the output rate of the artists”
“The team comprises of brilliant people and most of the artists are expected to join in a couple of months. All of us look up to each other” he added.
“Besides, just as the Indian animation industry which has grown by leaps and bounds in the past decade, animation technology too has come a long way and today the tools as well as the hardware have made things much easier to accomplish in much lesser time” he further added.
Elaborating on the technology part Biju shared,”Today machines are fast. What we have used so far are Xeons and Optrons. The new multi core processors are 50% faster than the single threaded ones, therefore the turnaround time is much lesser to see the work in progress and that`s a cumulative effect. Besides faster previewing means more cohesive approach”
As part of the strategy to meet production deadlines with a small team, the core pre production team is working very closely together. Weights of models will be lightened wherever possible. The look dev has also been done keeping rendering times in mind. “The idea is to stylise yet simplify, we are not going in for 100 lights kind of scenes, most scenes would have 8 to 10 lights. Polycounts would be optimised in the models and we will be playing around the textures. Being a feature the film is of course being made in 2K resolution” said Biju.
“Producing it on time with a small team, or achieving photorealism are not our challenges. All that can be done. The challenge is to get the characters to perform. All of us have photo realistic faces, but there`s very few Shah Rukh Khans and Saif Ali Khans or Johnny Levers. Its the story telling and performance that will be our key focus” he added.Wisp’ for Animoon Plc (UK).Besides a 72 episode CGI series for Hallmark Entertainment USA.
Toonz has also recently closed a mega deal with Marvel Studios for doing 104 episodes of Marvel characters(X-Men Franchise) and also another 3 picture DVD deal with Paramount Pictures, USA. All of these latest projects are in 3D arena.