Motu Patlu, ViR: The Robot Boy, Shiva… All these successful shows have one thing in common and that’s Cosmos-Maya’s chief creative officer Suhas Kadav! Kadav with his 22 years of experience in the animation sector, led the comic book based series Motu Patlu to attain great success over the years and now, he launched a mind-blowing 2D animated series Lambu-G Tingu-G that made its debut on Pogo Channel on 3 May 2021.
The original homegrown slapstick comedy series topped the list of best performing shows on Pogo with its stellar opening performance within the first two weeks of its release.
Animation Xpress got in touch with Lambu-G Tingu-G creative director Suhas Kadav to know what went into the creation of this great mix of slapstick comedy adventure animated series.
On asking why he preferred 2D over 3D for Lambu-G Tingu-G, Kadav commented, “We wanted to create a fun lively show akin to a sitcom with clumsy adult characters that kids can laugh along with. Lambu-G Tingu-G is conceptualised for a wider audience when compared with Motu Patlu or ViR: The Robot Boy, which is geared towards much younger kids. Lambu-G Tingu-G is a more family-oriented show that has a comparatively universal visual style to it when compared to our other 3D shows.”
Kadav had previously worked with characters with two opposite features Motu Patlu (one is fat and the other is thin) and now we see Lambu-G Tingu-G where one is tall and the other is short. While disseminating the idea behind that Kadav mentioned, “There is no formula really to conceptualising or capturing the essence of these characters. Motu Patlu was a Laurel Hardy-type duo and a 40-year old title by Lotpot comics that holds familiarity with older generations of our families. This familiarity translated to the contemporary popularity of the show for these past eight years. Lambu-G Tingu-G had no template to borrow from and was conceptualised completely by me.”
He further mentioned, “The juxtaposition of opposing features – big and small, tall and short – is something little kids find fundamentally funny and click with kids instantly. Even the side characters are developed keeping in mind the idiosyncrasies and mundanities of the setting they borrow from, and taking them to their comic/satirical extreme.”
The name of the series does remind us of the iconic Bollywood characters from the movie Coolie; Lambuji (Amitabh Bachchan) and Tinguji (Rishi Kapoor), while their features remind us of Diamond Comics’ characters Chotu Lambu. When asked if any inspiration was taken from these characters, Kadav didn’t comment anything.
Talking about the set-up, while Motu Patlu are situated in a fictional Furfuri Nagar which is a peaceful yet glamorous small town adjoined by a river with a few shops, a large market area, a bus depot, a cluster of single-storeyed houses, and temples, Lambu-G Tingu-G are based in the modern fictional city Buddy Badi Valley with all kinds of modern and developed facilities.
Narrating about the creation of Buddy Badi Valley Kadav said, “In Lambu-G Tingu-G, everything is big in scale and visual, from the city to the plants and trees – everything. Even the names of the characters and their location should espouse this. Buddy Badi Valley is a modern city with all kinds of modern facilities and its name is a play on this. According to me the tiniest elements of a show like this should convey its comic nature which makes the audience live with the character.”
The famous lyricist Gulzar Sahab penned the lyrics for the title track of both shows. While praising Gulzar Sahab’s work and talking about this association, a happy Kadav said, “Gulzar Sahab has obliged us with his creative genius on multiple occasions. I got to see him work the first time when I met him for Motu Patlu and later for Shiva, both shows that aired on Nickelodeon. I had always been extremely fond of the evergreen lyrics he wrote for The Jungle Book, so when we had the first rendition of Lambu-G Tingu-G ready, I immediately took it before him. The fun and frolic that I visualise in my animated shows, he gives them a poetic identity that I cannot even imagine, without taking away from their comedic element.”
On asking how he managed to come up with this new show during this challenging period, Kadav commented, “Since our production and release timelines are pre-planned nearly a year before, we were able to adjust our workforce requirements accordingly to facilitate production with minimum essential attendance in the studio premises and the bulk of the work being done from employees’ homes. Apart from some slight potential delays, we have managed to stick timely to our schedule and deliver as planned.”
When asked if he sees Lambu-G Tingu-G being celebrated throughout the decade as Motu Patlu, an optimistic Kadav commented, “We can only hope to see Lambu-G Tingu-G garner the same kind of acceptance and popularity as Motu Patlu, but we’re confident that our young audiences will relish the show.”
Kadav has about four to five projects in his pipeline with multiple new seasons of his existing shows. Shedding light on his future projects, he added, “Bapu will see its second season releasing soon on Disney Channel and Zee5. Dabangg will be released on Cartoon Network and Disney+ Hotstar. We are working on Captain Bharat, a patriotic superhero show that will be released in mid-2021 and are also working on Putra, which is a show geared towards the local Indonesian content market.”
“The future plan is the same as always, to keep our finger on the pulse of audience tastes, and deliver quality content to them,” concluded Kadav.
Catch Lambu-G Tingu-G from Monday to Friday at 12:45 pm only on Pogo.
