Indian Animated Television Series
Before the army of satellite channels invaded India it was Doordarshan which animated our lives until then. 1990s was an era which brought children running home from school to dive into an imaginary world of cartoons like ‘Tom & Jerry’, ‘Mickey Mouse’, ‘Donald Duck’, Japanese 'Jungle Book', 'Tales-Pin', 'He-Man and the Masters of the Universe'. As these animations were played during a fixed time-slots, they became etched in stone and were religiously followed by little children.
Gradually local artists began experimenting with a different format of animation, for instance 'Ghayab Aya' was the first Indian animation series created by Bengali artist Suddhasattwa Basu. Ghayab's success made Doordarshan realize the importance of telecasting animation serials. The role of Doordarshan in propagating animation in India is acknowledgeable, as it commissioned these series and many other animated films.
The satellite television revolution came during the mid-90’s creating a place for animators to showcase their talent.
Cartoon Network was the first to occupy the hearts of Indian children with animations like Johnny Bravo, The Powerpuff Girls and Dexter’s Laboratory.
Soon, during the late 90’s some other players like Nickelodeon, Fox Kids, Pogo, Hungama, Disney XD entered the market.
To capitalize amidst this competitive environment Cartoon Network developed a strategy - localizing its content by dubbing its cartoons in Hindi and Tamil. ‘Toon Tamasha’ being the first one in the plan; they went onto dub series like ‘Scooby Doo, ‘Flintstones’, ‘Swat Kats’, ‘The Mask’ and many more which occupied 9 hours in a day and were well received.
With its growing popularity Cartoon Network announced its 24-hour non-stop service thus, introducing some localized animated shows as well. Other channels also began accepting Indian content by finding their subjects from mythology and folklores. Series like ‘The Adventures of Tenali Raman’, ‘Chhota Birbal’, ‘Vikram Betaal’ and ‘Little Krishna’ hit the small screen.
The accepted form of Gods from Ramayan and Mahabharat, as percived by our forefathers is very different from the new age Tele - Gods. Today they play Ice Hockey and tal on mobile phones. ‘Roll No 21’, ‘Kumbh Karan’ and ‘Chhota Bheem’ are some good examples.
Though the advent of channels like Pogo, Disney and Hungama have partially opened up doors for the Indian animators to work on their own content; they still remain choosy and provide a limited time slot for domestic animations. A little relief for animators may come in the form of the Information and Broadcasting Minister of India who is planning to launch a separate DD channel for children in 2014 which will surely boost the potential of our country.
Here is a chronological list of the Indian Animated Television series:
1990 - Ghayab Aya
1992 - Lok Gatha
1995 - MEENA and SAARA
1996 - Tara Ki Duniya
2003 - Chota Birbal
2003 - The Adventures of Tenali Raman
2004 - Bongo
2005 - Vikram Betaal
2005 - Jo Bole Toh Jaadu
2006 - Akbar & Birbal
2008 - Chhota Bheem
2009 - Little Krishna
2009 - Krishna Balram
2010 - Kumbh Karan
2010 - Roll no 21
2010 - Chorr Police
2011 - Keymon Ache
2011 - Mighty Raju
2012 - Motu Patlu
2013 - Kid Krish
2013 - Pakdam Pakdai
2013 - Chakra
2013 - Vir - The Robot Boy
1990
| Ghayab Aya |
| Directed by |
Suddhasattwa Basu |
| Produced by |
IFEKT Production |
| Broadcast By |
Doordarshan |
1990 - Ghayab Aya
Image source: Sudhasattwa Basu
It was in 1990 when the director and animator Suddhasattwa Basu got his 10-part animation series-‘Ghayab Aya’ telecasted on Doordarshan. The fun filled stories of the friendly little spook ‘Ghayab’ who could appear and disappear at his own will, became popular among children of all ages.
Self taught animator Basu with painting and illustration skills developed his animation proficiency by practice. His growth as an animator could be seen from the first episode to the last episode.
I did Ghayab with Ms. Bizeth Banarjee (Co-owner of IFEKT) on profit sharing basis. I came to know her when she was making a tele serial for Doordarshan called 'Police File se'in the year 1985. Then I was working with The Living Media (India Today group) as an illustrator and chief designer of their children's magazine TARGET. Since Bizeth was already producing for DD, I asked her to send a proposal for 15 min slot. I was somehow confidant of sailing through. It was difficult to convince DD since we didn't have substantial work to show. The approval came only after submitting the first episode as a pilot.”
— Suddhasattwa Basu
The stories were spun out by his author friends of TARGET (Viji Ghose, Rupa Gupta, Viswajita Das) He acquired a 16mm camera, designed his own animation stand and worked for five years with a skeleton team of 6 assistants on this nationally and internationally acclaimed series.
1992
| Lok Gatha |
| Directed by |
Bhimsain Khurana |
| Produced by |
CFSI |
| Script |
Anamika |
| Camera |
Himanshu Khurana |
| Editor |
Vasant Narvekar |
Series of six 22 minute hindi animation films based on folk tales from different regions of India.
| Rani Aur Goli |
| Directed by |
Bhimsain Khurana |
| Produced by |
CFSI |
Rani Aur Goli
Image source:
Film Catalogue: Children's Film Society of India
A farmer had two daughters the fair and beautiful Rani and the dark and ugly Goli. Their mother hunt favours Rani and makes Goli work. One day Goli, finds a magic land where her hard work is rewarded with a bag of precious stones. The greedy mother on hearing the story from Goli, sends Rani to the same place thinking her beauty will lead her to get more wealth. But can she? This is a folk tale from Punjab.
| Oonth Aur Seeyar |
| Directed by |
Bhimsain Khurana |
| Produced by |
CFSI |
Oonth Aur Seeyar
Image source:
Film Catalogue: Children's Film Society of India
A cunning, old fox that has lost the ability tohunt makes friends with a camel. He climbs on his back andhunt conveniently. However, when the camel, after threedays of hunger, begins to eat melons the fox begins singingalerting villagers who beat the camel. Desirous for revengethe camel devices a plan in this film based on a Rajasthani folktale.
| Seedha Sahukar |
| Directed by |
Bhimsain Khurana |
| Produced by |
CFSI |
Seedha Sahukar
Image source:
Film Catalogue: Children's Film Society of India
There was once a good money lender. Afterdraught in the area, he decides to go out and earn for hisfamily. On the way, he is thirsty and goes toa well and drawswater. A deer, crow and fox come out of the well and beghim to set them free. He does so. The fourth one is a man,who instead of gratitude imprisons the money lender. When the three animals hear this, they device a plan to free the money lender in this Rajasthani folk tale.
| Dal Badlu |
| Directed by |
Bhimsain Khurana |
| Produced by |
CFSI |
Dal Badlu
Image source:
Film Catalogue: Children's Film Society of India
In a forest, the animals decide to have a democratically elected government. Two parties are formed, the animal party and the bird party. As the two parties fight for power a bat first joins the bird party and then joins up with the animals in this film based on a folk tale from Maharashtra.
| Kushal Mangal |
| Directed by |
Bhimsain Khurana |
| Produced by |
CFSI |
Kushal Mangal
Image source:
Film Catalogue: Children's Film Society of India
Kushal and Mangal are two heads of the the same bird who work in unison and protect the forest with their wisdom. Kalia, a vicious snake, schemes and lies to both Kushal and Mangal separately and sows the seeds of suspicion in their mind. The two loving brothers now want to kill each other in this film based on a folk tale from Madhya Pradesh.
Juun Maari Nadi Laal
An old woman kills a big louse and throws it in the river. This causes the river to turn red. When the river tells a bulls how it turned red, the bull's horn fall off. When the bull tells his story to the tree, its leaves fall off. The sequence goes on fill the story reaches the king in this film based on a folk tale from Punjab.
| Chalak Kauwa |
| Directed by |
Bhimsain Khurana |
| Produced by |
CFSI |
Chalak Kauwa
Image source:
Film Catalogue: Children's Film Society of India
A crow always keeps fighting with a innocent little bird. To bring peace betwer the two, a squirrel asks the two to do something togeter. However, the crow is dishonest and instead of farming together, he lazes around and makes some or the other excuse while the little bird slogs in the field. When the bird and squirrel realise that they have been cheated, they decided to teach the crow a lesson in this folk tale from Gujarat.
| Gadhe Kay Peche Gadha |
| Directed by |
Bhimsain Khurana |
| Produced by |
CFSI |
Gadhe Kay Peche Gadha
Image source:
Film Catalogue: Children's Film Society of India
After a washer-man hears a maulavi (teacher) say that he could turn donkeys to humans, he urges him to turn his donkey as well. When he does not relent, the maulavi asks him for money and tells him to leave the donkey for six months. When the washer man returns six months later, the maulvi tell him that the donkey is now a high government official. After being humiliated by the said official, he urges the maulavi to turn him back into a donkey in this folk tale from Hyderabad.
| Gaay Ka Sach |
| Directed by |
Bhimsain Khurana |
| Produced by |
CFSI |
Gaay Ka Sach
Image source:
Film Catalogue: Children's Film Society of India
A cow that always spoke the truth gets lost in the jungle. Finding her way back she encounters a tiger. She pleads to the tiger to let her go one time so she could feed her calf. She promised to return soon after. The tiger does not believe her but lets her go. To his surprise the cow does come back as promised in this folk tale from South India.
1995
| Meena and Saara |
| Animation Director |
Ram Mohan |
| Scriptwriter and Creative Director |
Rachel Carnegie |
| Script co-writer |
Nuzhat Shahzadi |
| Produced by |
UNICEF |
1995 - Meena and Saara
http://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/kidsspace_5107.htm
How the medium of animation can be used well to portray some serious social issues and values easily in a comical way could be seen well in the Meena series.
Addressing Asian countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Srilanka, Nepal and Maldives, Meena along with her brother and a parrot Mithu educates on issues of gender inequality and health care. Neill McKee, a Asia a US based communication consultant is the original creator of Meena Communication Initiative of South
14 episodes of Meena were designed by Ram Mohan in his studio Ram Mohan biographics. But due to lack of infrastructures he joined hands with Fil-Cartoons Manila.
On a similar terms Sara was built which addressed African girls. Over 150 artists, writers and researchers of Africa worked on the project. Similar to Meena, Sara’s animation direction was looked over by Ram Mohan.
2003
| The Adventures of Tenali Raman |
| Creative Director |
Roger Dondis |
| Animation Director |
Dan McHale |
| Produced by |
Toonz India Ltd |
| Broadcast by |
Cartoon Network |
2003 - The Adventures of Tenali Raman
http://toonz.co/distribution.html
Cartoon Network’s mission to contextualize the channel for the Indian audiences lead to the creation of Raman Effect.
13 episode (each of half hour duration) series is a classic 2D animation based on the Indian folklore. Roger Dondis, the creative director along with the scriptwriter Arial Prendergast worked on the stories and narrative of the complete series.
The series was shown and appreciated at the Cannes film festival.
2008
| Chhota Bheem |
| Directed by |
Rajiv Chilaka |
| Produced by |
Green Gold Animation |
| Broadcast by |
Pogo |
2008 - Chhota Bheem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhota_Bheem
After working on various television series like ‘Bongo’ (aired on doordarshan in 2002), ‘Vikram Betaal’ and ‘Krishna’, Rajiv Chilaka decided to work on Bheem from Mahabharata in a different style. He put him in a different set-up, time zone, and new set of friends with new challenges, thus making him more connected to the kids. The series became immensely popular and merchandising pushed its popularity further.
2009
| Little Krishna |
| Directed by |
Vincent Edwards and Balasubramanian Rajasekaran |
| Produced by |
Prafull Gade and Ravi Mahapatro |
| Created by |
BIG Animation and India Heritage Foundation |
| Broadcast by |
Nickelodeon |
2009 - Little Krishna
http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/photo/little-krishna-168
It is the first Indian ‘3D animated’ TV series in India. 5000 year-old stories of Krishna’s activities on the land of ‘Vrindavan’ have been wonderfully brought forward, virtually. A team of over 280 artists have researched and worked on this project.
Vincent Edwards of the Spider Man TV series provided the direction and storyboarding for ‘Little Krishna’ and Emmy Award winner Jeffrey Scott has worked on it as a Script Writer.
Simply watching the second episode of this 13 episodic tale of Krishna - where Indra rides on his Airavat (flying elephant) to the Govardhan Mountain on the earth, leaving behind dust clouds - will give you an idea of the type of effort being put into this series.
