The first-ever crowdsourced and crowdfunded Sanskrit animated film, Punyakoti, is on a winning streak. After bagging AnimationXpress’ Ann Awards, the film has gone on to win at American Golden Picture International Film Festival and recently, it bagged three awards at the Golden Harvest Film Festival.
The film won the Best Feature Film, Best Animated Film and Best Director’s awards at the festival. Director Ravishankar Venkateswaran told Animation Xpress that one of the jury members who was a part of another film festival recommended the movie to the Golden Harvest film festival and that’s how they entered the festival.
The festival is an online film awarding ceremony dedicated to the promotion of independent filmmakers from all over the world, in association with the International Film Festival Community (IFFC) established in Tokyo in 2020. The festival’s aim is to celebrate independent films with any genre or any duration, by selecting and awarding the artistry and creativity of independent filmmakers from all over the world, which is likened to “Golden Harvest”.
Based on a children’s book and a Kannada folk song, Punyakoti – A Truthful Mother follows the encounter between a noble cow known for speaking only the truth and a hungry tiger who has lost his home in the destruction of a forest.
Owing to the positive response, the makers decided to come up with a sequel which will be made in Hindi and regional languages as well. The story will be presented from the perspective of the next generation after Punyakoti grows old.
When asked how far the work on the sequel has progressed, Venkateswaran revealed, “We are speaking to an international studio that is based out of Australia for the co-production of the sequel. At this point we cannot reveal further details as these cycles take a longer duration as they want to evaluate the feasibility of making a global movie out of Punyakoti that can be shown around the world. We want a partner who has that kind of faith in Indian talent. I am hoping we can get a partner like that.”
With the film getting worldwide recognition and being picked by the world’s largest subscription streaming service, Netflix, the movie has proved its potential and global appeal. We hope the team finds their partner soon and we witness their magic once again on our screens.
Punyakoti can now be watched on Netflix, Plexigo and Book My Show.
