The beauty of perseverance is evident in the evolution of quality of production in Shemaroo Entertainment‘s Bal Ganesh 2 which has been produced in association with Mumbai based Astute Media Vision. The story telling is simple, enchanting and holds you on, coupled with some endearing character animation performances (For the lead character Bal Ganesh).
The film is made at a tight budget of (Cost Of Production@less then 1 Million USD + another half Million USD on P&A and all other costs) and putting that budget into perspective, the overall production quality that has been achieved for Bal Ganesh 2 is quite an achievement. It also makes the film quite a feasible proposition in terms of the business, notwithstanding the fact that getting a good number of Multiplex & Single Screens is quite an uphill task when distributors and exhibitors are not too keen on animation and when one has competition from 3 New Bollywood blockbusters every friday.
Talking a little bit about the story, As is known, the Mooshak (mouse) is the official vehicle of Lord Ganesh. The film features a group of mice that have been (in the film) listening to stories about Bal Ganesh narrated to them down the generations. The group of mice share their stories amongst each other, taking the audience to the world of Bal Ganesh talking about the tales of when he learnt his lesson of being kind to all living beings, when he destroyed the evil in Gajmukhasur and transformed him into his mooshak vehicle, also of when and how he was the official writer of the Mahabharata while rishi Ved Vyas narrated it to him. All the stories have been presented in a light hearted and childlike entertaining manner. The film being a collection of stories rather than one complete story makes it translate very well into Home Entertainment and broadcast space, at the same time opening up avenues for sequels.
Speaking to AnimationXpress.com, Shemaroo‘s Smita Maroo who is also the producer of the film shared, “We have ensured that the film translates into fun and a great experience for kids and their families. Kids entertainment is the focus and watching them come out of the screenings with happy faces and asking for more is what drives us.”
“Filmmaking is a team effort, the animators, the animation production team, post production DI team, audio post production team for sound effects, music and background score team, voice over artiste’s team – each have contributed towards making the film reach its current form. At every stage each team has contributed to enhance the production and take it to the next level.”
Regarding the distribution of the film she commented, “We are distributing this film theatrically on an all India basis in Hindi language. Since the number of digital theatres has increased, we are looking at more digital prints as compared to physical prints, totalling around 200 and thereby aiming to reach a wider audience. This year due to the strike in May, there have been many releases on every Friday and hence it’s a challenge for distributors as well as theatre owners to accommodate and assign shows to the various films. However we have put our best efforts to get the kind of show timings which would suit our target audience.”
Pankaj Sharma of Astute Media Vision, the Director of the film was looking visibly content with the product that his studio had produced the animation for. He shared, “‘Bal Ganesh 1 was a learning experience and we have ensured to take care of our learnings while making Bal Ganesh 2. A lot of effort was put into getting our character animation performance and nuances right. The studio has always focused on producing content for kids and we have certainly evolved over time. We now have a full fledged team of more than 35 professionals which takes care of concept to final product under one roof. As Writer & Director I have the advantage of being with my team almost everyday and can make changes on the spot if required. In Bal Ganesh 2 WE have taken care of everything which we felt was missing in part 1 starting from the writing. It is more crisp with lots of visual effects and good quality animation. We have also incorporated the creative and marketing inputs from the Shemaroo team headed by Smita Maroo.”
“In Bal Ganesh-2 we have created more than 30 facial morph targets and rigging was also changed for the the better control of expression and animations. Apart from the Storyboarding Animators were provided with the mirrors for creating better expressions and animations. For the songs we provided them choreographed references. We have not used motion-capture in any part of the film. Whatever we have achieved is only because of the hardwork and dedication of our production team along with the whole hearted support from Shemaroo Entertainment.” concluded Pankaj.