There is some really great news for the Indian animation fraternity as the Harry Baweja helmed 3D animation feature Chaar Sahibzaade has raced to the top of the charts of the highest grossing Indian animation films of all time.
It is the first photo realistic 3D animated film on Sikh history and is based on the real story of the sacrifices of the four sons of Guru Gobind Singh – Baba Ajit Singh, Baba Jujhar Singh, Baba Zorawar Singh and Baba Fateh Singh. Produced by Pammi Baweja and directed by Harry Baweja; it released on 6 November in Punjabi, Hindi and UK English, and has received an overwhelming response from the audience across the globe. The movie has been praised for its emotional and unbiased portrayal of one of the most important chapters of Sikh history.
WATCH THE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW OF THE MAKING OF ‘CHAAR SHAIBZAADE’ BY ANIMATIONXPRESS.COM
The movie has topped the business chart in other countries as well such as the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The movie has collected Ł81,348 (Rs 79.45 lakhs) from 16 screens in the UK, A$141,387 (Rs 75.31 lakhs) from 22 screens in Australia and NZ$33,832 (Rs 16.20 lakhs) from 7 screens in New Zealand in the first weekend. It has, in fact, pushed Happy New Year down to second place in all these countries.
“It will definitely break the myth around the animation industry in India and will boost it as well. On the other hand, other producers and directors are also looking at making feature films using animation as a platform. It was always in mind of people that we Indians don’t accept animation movies; earlier also we have seen animation movies based on Indian mythology like Mahabharat and Ramayana, I am not saying those were bad movies, but we need more better content to tell the story correctly,” said Chaar Sahibzaade, Director Harry Baweja, speaking exclusively to AnimationXpress.com.
The Punjabi version of the movie alone is on its way to become the highest grossing Indian animation film ever which at the moment is Hanuman released in 2005 after grossing around Rs 5.25 crore in net collections.
The movie has received a rather high rating of 9.9 on IMDB. The State Governments of Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab and Uttarakhand have also declared the movie tax free. These are certainly some encouraging numbers for the Indian animation industry.
“We are getting very good responses from the industry, people are very happy with our work, it’s a proud moment for us. We have put in more than two years of hard work in the project, and with the movie doing well critically as well as getting good numbers at the box-office it has brought animation to the forefront again. We have already started working on other two scripts, we have locked one and both revolve around Indian history, we will be producing it independently as well,” revealed i.Realities, MD Prasad Ajgaonkar.
The movie only uses still images of Guru Gobind Singh for reference. Actor Om Puri has given his soothing but heavy voice for Guruji’s dialogues in the movie. Because of the religious background, every dubbing artist in the movie has remained anonymous and no voicing credit has been given in the film.
“People always used to say that only Hollywood animation works in India, aur kuch nahi chalta hai India mein, I guess we have to break that perception and it’s very encouraging to see our first steps towards that with this small film with a large heart,” ended Harry.