Kolkata based Aura Cinematics Animated movie ‘Sound of Joy’ has won the Best Animated Film Award at Nashik International Film Festival (NIFF), it was announced on 24th March at the festival.
The film was also the nominated for FICCI Frames Best Animated Frames Awards’ 14 in DVD Feature Indian Category, and is selected for CMS International Children Film Festival that is slated for this April.
Jury of NIFF included international filmmakers from France, Australia, Iran and India and a total of 188 films across the globe were selected for screening.
Targeted at kids aged between 5-11 years, this 52 minutes film, tells the story of modern day kids, struggling with their aspirations and expectations and how they get inspired by stories of Biley (Childhood name of Swami Vivekananda), who during his childhood was as naughty and spirited as any kid of these days, and how these stories, help and motivate them to fight any crisis, difficult situations.
“I always had that feeling but now I am almost sure that whatever platform you place this
legend of a man, he will have his own way to conquer hearts. Here I am pointing out to the central character of the film, Swami Vivekananda. So my good feeling about this award is indebted to him and my wonderful, talented and dedicated team of artists.” shares Sukankan Roy, Director of the film and Co-Founder of Aura Cinematics with AnimationXpress.com and we continue this conversation with him to hear the making of ‘Sound of Joy’.
What inspired you to go ahead with a story line on Swami Vivekananda?
The film was the vision of Ramakrishna Mission spear headed by Swami Supurnananda and Swami Sarvabhutananda. We chose inner strength over gadgets and practice over prodigy. We already have lots of pin up super heroes. Its time, kids also get to love super humans. This ‘love’ is where we started thinking.
Sound of Joy is an attempt to make Swami Vivekananda a friend of children so that they eventually grow up to follow his ideals with both love and respect.
Kids know historical legends and are taught to respect them. But if they love them, there is a real chance that we get to grow few more super humans walking the streets.
It’s such an irony that the biggest youth Icon of this nation, who inscribed the idea of universal love and harmony, has definitely gained respect in every mind but still struggling to befriend their hearts.
Can we know more about the characters and their traits?
Sure, in this film, we have Joy, who is a fickle minded spirited boy aspiring to be a good violin player. He is a bright kid and is analytical about events. He always wants to win and is easily eluded by any sort of praise. Like every kid he wants to be appraised by his peers. He had a very small span of attention and concentration, which later improves getting helped by Biley’s stories.
June is Joy’s buddy and she is a sort of geek and tomboyish. She is a bit matured girl but still have childlike attributes. She is very one who goes by the book and is an unconditional support to Joy.
Master is the Santa Claus of this story. He is the main source of all Biley’s stories and a guide for Joy and June. He is a kind of man who never gets angry or excited and is a great support.
How’s the look and feel of the film like and please inform about the technologies used?
We have tried every bit of our wits and skills to generalize the look of the film so that it does not reflect any particular geography or people. We stuck by the traditional character forms and did not try any stylization with them as this is a kid product pre dominantly aimed for children across India and we did not want to impose any new style on the lesser exposed kids of this country. Adobe Flash and Photoshop are used to create the film.
Can you share the research and references that you went through for the film?
Oh, that’s a long story. It had been a wonderful journey of learning curve. Thanks to the Ramakrishna Mission and their monks who guided us with utter precision and patience for 3 long years. It was a very extensive research on the life and philosophies of Swami Vivekananda and the end result was a distinct spiritual growth of the team which translated onto every frame of the film.
Please share the credits?
This is what I would love to do. The film is an end result of these very talented and spirited super artists who has always inspired me to go on.
Starting with the story writing, Avishek Sarkar had been the live wire of the studio, Rishi Sahany was the key translator of the words to the visuals, who almost single handedly held the project inspite of his serious health concerns and also greatly assisted in direction, Asit Das had been always a support in visual storytelling and Sudhir Mirage was our inspiration of dedication whose Art Direction is what achieved the final look and feel of the film.
Music Director Sudip Nandy was the last person to blow life into the film with his very simplistic yet effective harmony. If you would have allowed me to say more, I would really want to name every artist associated with the film, without whom, we couldn’t have pulled the production in a phenomenal four months time.
Talking of time I must acknowledge the super human feat achieved by our producers Dipankar Sarkar and Susmita Mukherjee who tightly held the whole team and project together till the last date.
What were the challenges faced while creating the film?
When we started the film, only suggestion that was common from all the monks of Ramakrishna Mission, was that “Doing any work for Swami Vivekananda will test your endurance”.
We realized it the hard way when every day was a new challenge starting from art to time to finances. We are happy that we could see the end now.
We would like to conclude this conversation by hearing from you on what’s happening on the deal signed between Artevision and Aura Cinematics?
Hot Heart Story is the film that we are doing next with Artevision. It is the maiden Indo Polish Co production after the treaty was signed in 2012. We are slated to start production from May and at this moment we are on the final stages of scripting.