Summer of 07 will witness at least a couple of Indian animated films shine at the silver screens. Maybe more.
Hyderabad based Sun Animatics India (previously Polygon Perplex) is speeding ahead with its production schedule for the Mayabazar inspired animated feature Ghatotkach.
The studio has shared that close to 300 traditional 2D and Digital CGI animation artists are creatively collaborating together out of studios in India, Phillipines, Singapore and the UK to ensure that Ghatotkach is produced with high quality and on time to take advantage of the Summer Holidays.
Budgeted at around150 million Indian Rupees, Ghatothkach is a 100 Minutes Animation feature film and will feature a mixture of classical and CGI animation. The movie is being directed by thespian director Singeetam Srinivasa Rao and is themed around the 1957 live action film Mayabazar.
According to the studio, production will be over by Jan 07 and the post production will be completed by March 07. Initially the film is planned to be released in English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali.
In what can be termed as an Interesting co incidence, life has come a full circle for director Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, who started his career in 1957 as an Assistant Director for the original classic “live action” Mayabazar. And he is now directing the same subject in animation in the name of Ghatothkach. The director with more than 50 years of experience in the Indian and South Indian film industries has 60 films to his creditsincluding films like Pushpak, Appuraja and Son of Aladdin a 3D animated film which has been appreciated round the world.
Speaking about Ghatothkach as the subject of his animated feature, Singeetam Rao told AnimationXpress.com, “When the character of Ghatothkach was first introduced in the film Mayabazar which was released 50yrs back, children and adults alike loved him then and still continue to love him. The film has been made 11 times and every time it was a box office hit. The reason for this is as follows, the character of Ghatothkach has three main attributes. His magic, his fun loving nature and his enormous capacity of eating food which makes him the most endeavouring to the children. secondly the ever entertaining story of Ghatothkach taking the form of Surekha and fooling an unwanted bridegroom and helping the lovers Surekha and Abhimanyu in getting married. Since all this fun is conducted with the blessing of lord Krishna .the entire story takes a different status and becomes a favourite of children and adults alike. After the release, Ghatothkach is likely to be as much a favourite as Superman and Spiderman to the audiencesâ€? world over.”
Owell Mina is working as the Animation Director for Ghatotkach. He has 20 years of experience in animation industry with world class series shows like Legend of Dragon, Little Amadeus to his credit.
Talking about the technical innovations, Deepak Jadhav, overseas Pre-production and Production Manager shared, “The film will be in a regular 35mm film format. However, print and effects work will be done at Prasad Lab, Chennai”.
Many big names from the Indian film industry will be working on different fronts in this feature. Lyrics for this movie are given by Sameer and the songs will be sung by Shravan (Hanuman Fame), Shaan, Shreya Ghosal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Sudeesh Bhosle, Mahalaxmi Iyer and Daler Mehandi.
On being asked about his anticipations after Singeetam commented “Ghatothkach is sure to set a benchmark for animation films in India. I am confident that the film is going to be a big commercial success on par with live action films and will pave way for several film makers to take up animation film production as an extremely commercial preposition and I have come to this conclusion not just because the film is my baby, but with 50 years of experience in the film industry I am in a position to critically assess the potential of the film. I am as confident today as when I was making films like Pushpak, Appuraja and Mayuri”.