Festivals are proving to be truly auspicious for Indian animation studios. If it was Green Gold PMI’ created Krishna that Cartoon Network premiered on Gokul Ashtami, this Ganesh Chaturthi day Zee Kannada is going to premiere Siddhi Vinayaka an animated feature created by Bangalore based Mediateck.
Speaking to Animation Xpress.com, Zee Kannada Business Development Head Venkat Giridhar shared, “In the regional channel space we do a lot of special programming around festivals and occasions. However this is for the first time that a regional channel has acquired an original animated feature made in Kannada. On behalf of the Zee Network, Zee Kannada has acquired worldwide perpetual broadcast rights for the feature”
“All Audience Groups above the age of 4 are our TG for this animated feature since the subject is a universal one and it would air on Ganesh Chaturthi day itself. We have also asked the studio to provide us with versions in various Indian languages including Tamil, Telugu and Marathi”
Siddhi Vinayaka premieres August 27 at 10.am on Zee Kannada.
Close to 20 artists worked for more than six months to create the 45 minute long 2D /Flash animated feature. “We have focused on all the film making aspects for Siddhi Vinayaka” said Mediateck CEO Balakrishnan Muddur. “Not only is the quality of the animation very nice but we have also taken care in terms of voices, songs, sound, editing and other production aspects”
“I think it is wonderful for Zee to acquire this feature and am hopeful that this will pave the way for similar developments in the future” he added.
Commenting on the style and storyline Muddur commented, “In terms of style, we have gone for realistic looking characters to be able to preserve the sanctity of the subject. Since we are mostly into religious content, realistic looking illustrations is characteristic of most of our productions”
“In terms of story, there are varied versions of the story of Ganesha but the animated film is largely based on Shiva Purana. His creation by divine Mother Parvathy; his heroic death at the hands of his own father, Lord Shiva, in a fierce battle; his re-birth with the head of an elephant; all these go to make a fascinating story, especially for children” he added.
Credits for Siddhi Vinayaka include direction by Balakrishna Muddur, Art Direction & Animation Supervision by Manjunath, Script by S Krishnamoorthy, Screenplay by K N Krihnamoorthy Rao, Lyrics by M N Vyasa Rao and Playback by Popular Kannada singer M D Pallavi. The feature has four songs, three of which are Sanskrit based and one which will be redone in each language version.
Mediateck is also planning to release Siddhi Vinayaka in various languages for the Indian and International home video market and is actively engaging with Home Video publishers.
The Bangalore based studio has already completed Eight Animated features, most of which were for religious institutions and temple trusts. It has commenced work next on an animated feature around Swami Vivekananda which has been commissioned by the Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai.