Since the time ToonPur Ka Superhero was announced, it has always been one of the most buzzing and talked about projects in animation circles. Animation, Ajay Devgun, Kajol, Eros, Big Screen Entertainment, Kireet Khurana, 2nz, MEL, Artery FX…. its a coming together of a lot of interesting elements from the entertainment business.
The HotShot Kireet Khurana, one of the youngest veterans of Indian animation is the captain of the ToonPur Ship and in between extremely hectic shooting schedules, supervising the animation production, reviews, voice and song recordings, writing blogs and much more, Kireet found some precious minutes to talk to Animation Xpress.com‘s Anand Gurnani
Here‘s the full conversation as it happened, with some more from his blog too…
How much of the Toonpur live action shoot is complete? Is the animation production too happening at the same pace?
All live action scenes pertaining to animation were completed in Dec. (barring the promo song which was shot last week). Out of a total of 1hr.25min of animation/live-animation combo scenes, 90% animation is complete. We are currently rendering and compositing. All animation is scheduled to be completed by this month end and final deadline for completion of all rendering and compositing is 31st March.
The film is scheduled for Summer 09 release if all goes as per plan. The work is happening in 3 studios – Maya (handling about 45mins. of animation), Pixion (working on the animated climax which is an exhaustive piece of animation and overall VFX of the live-action scenes) and 2nz Animation (entire pre-production and approx. 8 mins. of animation is being handled by our studio). The film is being VFX supervised by Yunus Bukhari of Artery FX and his team.
How was your experience of directing Ajay Devgun and Kajol? And of making them interact with characters they cannot actually see?
Kajol is a great actor and very spontaneous in her performance. She didn‘t have much interaction with toons in the film as most of her role was in the real world (entire live-action scenes). Ajay has a substantial role with the toons and he was absolutely outstanding and patient. We hope to build a constituency of children‘s audience for him. He is a thinking actor who has given great creative contribution to the film.
When I started shooting for Toonpur, I had specific notions on performance of live characters. My biggest concern was that since we had loud, exaggerated animated characters, Ajay‘s performance may not match up to those characters. Add to it the fact that I am asking an actor, though versatile, to act without any real actors, completely against green screen (Ajay and the other actors were reacting to stands and props in the Toonpur sequences). Given this fact, I wasn‘t sure at all if Ajay‘s level of performance would actually match up to the toons. The solution I had in mind was to subdue the performance of the toons whenever they were interacting with Ajay so that the visuals didn‘t look out of place.
To my surprise Ajay got into the skin of the character from day one. He unearthed a stellar performance, which not only shocked me but also challenged one of India‘s best animation teams. He has been absolutely outstanding in his visualization, filling in the huge gaps and absence of other characters and environments. So much so that he has also imagined the reactions of the other characters that are now being added in the post. I joined the club of people who really believe that Ajay is not only among the best but also one of the most under-rated actors in India today. If all goes as planned, Ajay will endear the young audience.
Does the enormous scale of the project weigh on your mind as you go about directing the film?
Not so far. I am enjoying the process and have a capable team to handle myriad activities related with the film.
What is the single most exciting thing about the Toonpur project?
That it is actually happening! What started off as a concept that was executed by us for 30 sec. ad film, has been successfully expanded into a feature film which is unique in its execution. We are hoping Toonpur will set new benchmarks in Indian animation.
Are the animation voices done, or is the animation happening on scratch tracks?
The voices are scratch currently. However, we shall be getting competent, well-known voices for the characters‘ voices.
Who is the primary audience for Toonpur?
Primarily it‘s targeted at kids, but it‘s an all audience film in its intrinsic sensibility.
And…
The success of Toonpur has ramifications for the entire animation Industry in India. The core team fully understands this responsibility. It has to ensure Toonpur becomes successful as it will open up vistas for future animation ventures. We hope to live up to the promise and thank the entire animation industry for its overwhelming support and trust in the team.
