Joyce Ahuja, founder of Joyce Creative Studios, is making her mark in animation and visual storytelling at a very young age. With origins from both Bengaluru and Paris, she is a new-age creator whose influences cut across continents. Beginning to draw at age four, Ahuja was growing up influenced by the creations of studios like Pixar and Disney, developing an early sense of wonder about the details of animated filmmaking. That interest blossomed into a strong dedication to the art form, with formal training and practical experience helping to define her voice as a storyteller and creative entrepreneur.
Her newest venture, Muzeca!! Before We Stop Dreaming is an Indo-European animated fantasy adventure feature. The movie is about a princess’s journey who refuses to be a princess in order to become a musician and a circus performer because she wants to be independent and free. She deals with identity, imagination, and belonging through the prismatic lens of a culturally rich narrative. Infusing fantasy with both Eastern and Western storytelling traditions, the project is evidence of the studio’s goal of producing globally resonant material that’s still based on original IP. At Joyce Creative Studios, Ahuja and her team work on different aspects of pre-production such as development of the concept, designing characters, and storyboarding with the objective to create a rich and emotionally rooted animated world.
She now travels extensively to visit both creative and industry events. At Mipcom, with her father, she had a number of encouraging meetings with international producers and distributors. These meetings form part of her overall initiatives to network and secure inspiration from various creative markets for upcoming works.
In an interview with AnimationXpress, she talks about what first drove her towards animation, establishing a studio at such a young age, her projects and what the future holds for her.
When you were four years old, you began drawing. Could you explain what first drew you to storytelling and animation?
My parents say I was 10 months when I first started scribbling and I fell in love with making characters, coming up with stories and making fictional worlds. I always watched animated movies. As I got older, in my pre-teens I saw many of my friends and relatives were unable to do what they love because of some dysfunctional beliefs. I figured out that the media and films we consume influences a huge chuck of our belief system. So to inspire people that it’s possible to live a beautiful life doing what you love, I decided I’m going to make animated movies.
Have you taken any formal training in animation and design?
I did a short character animation course in Gobelins Paris, and continued studying animation in Paris for a while. A major part of my learning comes from real industry experience and being a proactive learner and researcher.
My professional journey started with the Cannes Film Festival’s American Pavillion’s Professional Development Program, through which I interacted and had deep film discussion with industry stalwarts. I worked with a distribution company based in California and a production company based in New York. As I started developing my own project, I was reaching out to producers and receiving guidance from industry veterans, like Mikros Animation’s Sean Mullen, Norlum’s Claus and Skajlborn’s Mikkel. Then attending events like Mipcom, Cannes Film Festival and Animation Production Days where I met the creators of Winx, Stefano Fratini and Ignio Straffi from Rainbow.
What was the vision of Joyce Creative Studios?
Firstly, I had so many creative ideas that I wanted to bring to life, meaningful creative entertaining stories. As I learnt more about the industry, I really wanted to create a beautiful organisational culture where artists feel valued and respected and have a healthy creative environment to create to the best of their ability. I also learnt that even though India has worked on creating animation for numerous block-busters films like The Lion King, Penguins of Madagascar, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Boss Baby and many more, it doesn’t own any of these IPs. I also felt it would be a great medium to romanticise and show the beautiful facets of our culture. So all of this led me to create Joyce Creative Studios. Walt Disney started his company on 16 October 2023 and exactly 100 years later, in October 2023, I started Joyce Creative Studios.
My vision for Joyce Creative Studios was:
- Use the power of animation to create meaningful stories that have a positive influence and can inspire audiences.
- Raise the benchmark of what is possible with animation to creative innovative, immersive and visually stunning visual styles
- Tell timeless, dramatic and entertaining stories that become powerful IPs that connect for families across the world to enjoy together.
What obstacles did you have to overcome as a young founder navigating the animation industry?
With focus in the right direction you can truly achieve your dreams, which is why it’s very important to be mentally strong when faced with setbacks. One of the obstacles being young is being underestimated, when people say you’re just a kid, or you should forget your big dreams and get work as an unpaid intern. Use that to your advantage and surprise others by what you can achieve. I didn’t listen to the doubters, which is why I was the youngest person to get a major funding grant for my animated production Muzeca, from Elevate, the government of Karnataka, youngest to be invited to pitch to Disney, Warner Bros, BBC at Animation Production Days and FMX in Germany and also get animation producers and distribution partners who believe in my vision. Your work speaks for itself and is always recognised by the right people. There is lots of hope and opportunity if you look around and believe in yourself.
Could you tell us more about Muzeca!! Before We Stop Dreaming, the animated feature film you teased at Mipcom 2024?
For the first time, in our country, an international animated production that is meaningful, artistically beautiful, entertaining and emotional story is being made for global family audiences on such a large scale.
Muzeca is a story of self-discovery, it is about – a gifted-gypsy-musician uprooted from the mountains, Muzeca, gets seduced by fame, fortune and romance, only to learn, the true melody of life lies within.
Muzeca stands out with its Indo-European diverse setting, showing the west, the exotic india. It has an immersive artistic hybrid visual style and emotional dramatic storytelling, which makes it visually appealing and commercially viable. It has a strong female protagonist and many meaningful themes. With Muzeca, I would like to convey how happiness does not always come from material successAnd inspire audiences to follow their dreams just like Muzeca.
I got an incredible response at Mipcom from many stalwarts of the industry. I met Stefano Fratini and Ignio Straffi from Winx Club, at Rainbow Studios who were very supportive. Recently, I was also invited to Animation Production Days in Germany where I pitched and made strong relationships with major buyers, Disney, Warner Bros, BBC, Serious Kids, Pink Parrot Media. And then at the Cannes Film Festival, I had met Anupam Kher who had shared his encouragement and support for the project.
What were your learnings at Mipcom?
I learnt a lot about what buyers are looking for. You need to know who you’re pitching to, an investor wants to know if the project will make money, an animation producer may be more interested in story and designs. As I pitched many times, I learnt what works and doesn’t work. It’s also helpful to have a fully packaged project, pitch deck with all the designs, a trailer, a script and a financial plan.
Don’t be so desperate to bring your project to life that you partner up with any tom, dick and harry. Be patient and do what’s best for your project, always sign an NDA before sending your materials and don’t sell off your IP.
The animation industry is evolving rapidly. Where do you see the biggest opportunities for emerging studios like yours?
In the past, the industry was majorly driven by big players in Hollywood but now the power is slowly shifting. As technology improves, cost of creation is definitely coming down, which makes it easier for independent studios to create greater quality animation at a fraction of the cost. There are a lot of events and networking opportunities more than ever before. The internet has always made learning new skills easier and as the market becomes more competitive, everyone will have to be on top of their game, and we can expect a great influx of creative talent. It’s also easier to build an audience for your work and get crowdfunding and access to other funds.
You are an artist and creative blocks are a problem for many artists. How do you manage to remain inspired?
This is a very important question. Picasso said every child is an artist, the challenge is to remain one as an adult. First, I think it’s important to understand where creative blocks come from. Our society continuously conditions fear into our minds, for example getting a safe job and stable income, don’t take risks. Our society also monetises creativity, it needs to be commercially viable, so do this, change that. We also see this polished creative output that is perfect and flawless, so we have that pressure. Then there are people who degrade and compare you to AI. Everyone has free advice on how to be successful materialistically. Now all these factors contribute to having a creative block and feeling self-doubt.
To let inspiration in, we need to let go of all that fear, attachment to the outcome and conditioning, only then can we be in a flow state and create. Creativity in a state of flow, feels like the universe is expressing itself through you and it’s a little like meditation. You have no thoughts about if it’s the right composition or colour choices, it is just experimenting and fun.
Before we wrap up, what’s next for Joyce Creative Studios?
I have many ideas but focus is important, so for now we are just doing our best to bring Muzeca to life.
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