This section includes interviews of some of the eminent Indian animators who have played a vital role in shaping our animation industry. They have shared their experiences, inspirations, struggle, work, achievements and views on the current animation scenario in India.
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Ram Mohan
Shaila Paralkar
Nina Sabnani
Dhimant Vyas
Vaibhav Kumaresh
Gitanjali Rao
Manisha Mohan
RL Mistry
Sumant Rao
Suddhasattwa Basu
Shilpa Ranade
Sekhar Mukherjee
E. Suresh
Bhimsain Khurana
Ajit Rao
Chetan Sharma
Binita Desai
Arnab Chaudhuri
Phani Tetali
Prosenjit Ganguly
Prakash Moorthy
Chetan Sashital
Ram Mohan
The 84-year-old Indian who has inspired generation of animators. He is the only Indian animator to receive the prestigious Padma Shri Award by the Government of India.
Awards and Filmography:
1957- 'A Banyan Deer'- Cartoon Film Unit, Films Division of India.
1968- 'Baap re Baap'- produced by Prasad Productions. Scripted, designed and directed by Ram Mohan. It won National Award for the best short film on Family Planning, 1969.
1971- 'You Said It' produced by Prasad Productions for Film Division. Scripted, designed and directed by Ram Mohan. It won National Award for the best film in 1972.
1972 - 74- Series of films called 'Down to Earth'(12 min each) - produced by Prasad Productions for the Family Planning Association of India.
Part 1: 'The Friendly Planet'
Part 2: 'The Ravaged Elements'
Part 3: 'The Island of Graph'
Part 4: 'The Fourth Revolution' - produced by Ram Mohan Biographics.
1983- 'Fire Games'- produced by ShilpaBharati. Designed and directed by Ram Mohan.
1984- National Award for the Best Animation Film- "Fire Games"
1989- 'Taru'- produced for Children's Film Society of India-18 min. Design and directed by Ram Mohan.
1992- 'Ramayana- The Legend of Prince Rama' – 135 mins. Co-produced and Directed along with Yugo Sako.
1994- 'The White Elephant'- produced in co-operation with ACCU, Tokyo based on an Indian- Fable.
1995- Project 'Meena' with UNICEF - 13 episodes with 20 - 25 artists – few of the starting episodes weredone in collaboration with FIL Cartoons, Manila. Animation for the rest of the episodes was done at Ram Mohan Biographics studio.
1996- Communication Arts Guild Hall of Frame award for Life Time achievement.
2001- Advertising Club Award 'ABBY' for Life Time Achievement.
2002- Chairman, Graphiti Multimedia, Pvt. Ltd.
2003- I.D.P.A. "Ezra Mir" award for Life-Time Achievement. Broadcast India.
2014- Awarded Padma Shri by the Government of India.
Have a look at some of his wonderful sketches and doodles.
Shaila Paralkar
- One of the first woman animator of India.
She started her career with Akaar Studio of Sir Kantilal Rathod but it was at Films Division of India that she set her roots from 1962 until got retired at the age of 60 years. She has animated over two dozen films, many of which have wonNational and International Awards.
Interview with Shaila Paralkar:
• "Mukti"
Debutant film as a Director and an Animator
• "The Tree of Unity" or "Ektaa ka Vruksh"
Designed and animated by her.
• "Bottled Cannibals"
Scripted, designed and animated by Shaila Paralkar. Exhibited at International Film Festivals in D'Annecy, France,Moscow, Greece and Portugal in 1979 while in the following year in Hong Kong.
• "The Thinker"
Received her first National Award in 1982. Also showcased at D'Annecy, France, Czechoslovakia, Tampere Film Festival and inHK during the year 1981-82.
• "The Last drop"
Done in 1993. This filmwon the State Award and was showcased in the fifth International Film Festival in Lausanne,France, in Shanghai, PR of China and in Okomedia, Denmark.
• "Freedom"
Got showcased at Shanghai Film Festival and Chicago International Children's film Festival.
• "The Savior"
Won two President's award each in the category of Best Director and Producer for Best Family Welfare film about child health care and immunization program in India.
After being a workaholic for past 40 years, upon her retirement, she has taken up painting, Illustrations, knitting and all creative hobbies that she could not pursue during that time. Playing puzzles on the desktop is also one of her favourite past time.
Nina Sabnani
Born in 1956
Birth Place:Ahmedabad
Currently: Professor at Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay A renowned film maker who worked as a Senior Designer at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and later taught there in the areas of Animation and Visual Communication and Interaction Design for 20 years.
She completed her doctoral studies in the Kaavad Tradition of Rajasthan at IDC, IITB in 2011.
She loves to work with the communities and conserving their art through the medium of films.
Her films and illustrated books have won several national and international accolades.
Here is the video of her journey as an Indian animator / Designer / Film maker where she has not only spoken about her works, achievements, responsibilities but also her views on the current animation scenario in India.
Dhimant Vyas
A master of claymation who worked on the famous "Shaun the Sheep (series 2) and 'Purple and Brown' with the multiple Academy Award winning studio- Aardman Animations in UK.
The hands behind the amazingly animated opening credits of the feature film 'TaareZameen Par'.
The humble and hardworking 'Kaka' (as he is fondly called by his well wishers), has a vast experience in communicating with his hands using various animation techniques like Stop Motion, 2D classical, 3D, sand and pixilation.
An inspiration to a lot of aspiring artists and enthusiastic film-makers, he has worked with giants like BBC, UNICEF, UTV, Zee TV, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.
Apart from being an Animation Designer, Dhimant is a wonderful Sculptor, Painter and Photographer. He is currently working as a Senior Consultantin Tata interactive Systems, Mumbai.
Here he shares his journey as an Animation Film Designer along with some of his brilliant work.
To know more about his work check his website:
http://www.dhimantvyas.com/
Vaibhav Kumaresh
Born- 1975 in Pune, Maharashtra
The creator of the timeless animated angry maths teacher Simpoo, the cheerful Chulbuli and the amazing Amaronclaymationcommercials . The founder of Vaibhav Studios along with few of his power packed team members have been successfully producing some interesting Indian animation.
An inspiration to a lot of young minds, Vaibhav is himself inspired from the works of Ram Waeerkar, Paul Dressien, RK Laxman and Sergio Aragones.
Vaibhav along with Tony Singh also organizes TASI- 'The Animation Society of India' where there is an exchange of creative and technical information within the field of Art and Animation.
http://www.vaibhavstudios.com
Gitanjali Rao
Born in 1972 in Mumbai, Maharashtra
Taking the road less taken and making her own niche, GitanjaliRao is an independent filmmaker who makes animated films for adults. Her first two films –'Orange' and 'Printed Rainbow' won several accolades.
'Printed Rainbow' was premiered in the Cannes Critics Week in 2006 where it went on to win three awards including best short.Her recent film 'True Love Story' has received a production grant from the Doha Film Institute.
Here is she talking about her films, her style and the challenges she faces as an Indian filmmaker. Know more about her at:
http://www.gitanjalirao.com/
Manisha Mohan
Every animation need not be just for entertainment. Our animation industry caters to several other sectors as well.
'Manisha Mohan'- Senior Vice President- Design & Animation at 'Tata Interactive Systems'- the pioneer and global leader in learning solutions talks about other avenues of animation which serve the Education, Corporate and Government sectors.
Here is the video of her journey and experience as an Indian Animation Designer :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR33RrrJcpA&feature=youtu.be
RL Mistry
Born in 1943 at Vyara, Gujarat
Prof. RL Mistry- being a man of few words with a very unique style of drawing he remains a pioneer of animation education in India.
As an animation film designer and an educator from NID he takes us for a walk through the memory lanes of NID.
This video pays a tribute to some of his beautifully crafted films and sketches where he clearly establishes himself as one of the 'Maha'rathis of Indian animation.
Sumant Rao
A passionate animation professor at Industrial Design Centre talks about his experiences as a professional as well as a teacher.
A great inspiration to all the aspiring young animators.
Suddhasattwa Basu
Born - 1956 in West Bengal.
He studied fine arts at the Government College of Art & Craft in Kolkatta.
He is the one who made India's first animated television serial – 'Ghayab Aya' which earned national and international acclaim. Basu didn't have any training of animation, what he had were only books and enthusiastic friends. Ghayab was a production for Doordarshan by Studio IFEKT, a sole proprietorship co owned by Ms. Bizeth Banarjee. He did Ghayab with her on profit sharing basis. He came to know her when she was making a tele serial for Doordarshan called 'Police File se' in the year 1985. Then he 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, he asked her to send a proposal for 15 min slot. He was somehow confident of sailing through. It was difficult to convince DD since they didn't have substantial work to show. The approval came only after submitting the first episode as a pilot (then there was no norm of submitting full episode as pilot).
The stories were quickly spun out by Basu's author friends of TARGET(Viji Ghose, Rupa Gupta, Viswajita Das).
It took him five years of back breaking work to complete the project with support of a skeleton team of 6 assistants. Ghayab was first telecast in July 1990 on DD national network, Sunday morning before Mahabharat.
After Ghayab Aya, he started his own company - Raikhik Films and continues doing 2D animation projects.
Here are two of his recently done projects.
Character and Animation Design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g2O5hqnsv4
Animation Design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUpseDJ27LM
Shilpa Ranade
A filmmaker and animation faculty at IDC, IIT Bombay, her animated feature film 'Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya' had its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival and won several awards and recognition. This documentary throws light on her immense journey as an Indian animator, her way of looking at animation and the learning and achievements along the way.
Sekhar Mukherjee
Prof. Sekhar Mukherjee is an alumnus of NID Ahmedabad, where he also acted as a senior faculty of communication design from 2002 to 2018. As a commerce graduate, he decided to pursue his passion for the profession and started his career being a newspaper cartoonist, illustrator and info-graphic artist for the Economic Times, Kolkata. Afterwhich, he joined NID to study Animation Film Design in 1992. In 2000, he trained the first 2D animation studio in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which is one of his most cherished projects to date. From 2002, for the next 12 years, he headed the Animation Department at NID Ahmedabad. He was also the chairman of NID Film Club and the Artistic Founder Director of the iconic Chitrakatha event-A biennial International Student Animation Festival since 2007.
E. Suresh
An inspirational story of the Founder and Director of the Mumbai based Studio Eeksaurus Productions. Since the time when animation was relatively a new medium in India E.Suresh has led teams that have created animation films in 2D, 3D and Clay/Stop motion in advertising films in India.
Bhimsain Khurana
Bhimsain Khurana - The hands behind the very popular 'Ek Chidiya Anek Chidiya' which use to captivate everyone's attention in the 70s. One of the pioneer animators of India. A multi faceted person (Do listen to the song composed by him at the last section of the video ) This video pays a tribute to some of his beautiful and simple films.
Ajit Rao
To call Ajit Rao an animator, would be a gross understatement of his abilities. He can wear other hats, just as proficiently, like that of an architect, a cartoonist and many others. He can hold his own just as well with experts of archeology, history, mythology, folk art and one cannot forget educationist. What is fascinating is his process of acquiring a depth of understanding about each domain of interest and then allowing for a sort of osmosis of ideas and knowledge from other domains that he has mastered to generate works that are steeped in Indian tradition and yet manage to be refreshingly contemporary.
On this journey of personal growth, he has been blessed with many gurus like B. V. Doshi, Mario Miranda, Ram Mohan, Kaj Pindal, Derek Lamb, Walter Spink, and others, each leading lights in their own fields.
Always a student and a great teacher, he has groomed many of the country's animators and inspired many others.
Chetan Sharma
Co- Founder and Director of Mumbai based Animation studio - Animagic India, is devotion, determination and discipline personified. He brings all these qualities to the service of a single-minded pursuit of attaining excellence in the field of animation. And with this excellence at his disposal he aspires to tell grand stories – stories that breathe the universal spirit radiating from this splendid cultural heritage of India. Chetan possesses the power of the alchemist to transfer his little joys, his frustrations, his aspirations, his big achievements and his financial struggles into a multiplied determination and a joyful tinkle in his eye to set the stage for the next adventurous move in his chosen medium.
D'source presents a roller-coaster interview with Chetan Sharma tracking his fascinating journey from inspiration to manifestation.
Binita Desai
Binita Desai- Associate Professor, Animation Designer at DAIICT, Gandhinagar. The one who began animation at NID along with Prof. Nina Sabnani. 'Animation is tremendous possibilities- especially in terms of imagination, something that you can visualize, materialize, ideate, that you can dare to imagine' - says Binita Desai.
Arnab Chaudhuri
The Director of an epic action martial arts film - 'Arjuna : The Warrior Prince'
Apart from Being a well known animator creator he has played diverse roles spanning creatie direction, On-air Promotions, Programming and managing creative and content strategy across several countries
After a breathtaking Arjun he is all set with his new film on the character 'Abhimanyu' from Mahabharata. Check out few glimpses of the same in his interview.
Phani Tetali
"Lots of people, lots of fun", is the unique way in which veteran animator and crowd illustrator, Prof. Phani Tetali, captures the very essence of our country, India.
Prof. Phani, an associate professor at the IDC School of Design at IIT Bombay is a passionate animator and his illustrations are aimed at celebrating the diversity of our culture. He has created several contextualized, rich visual narratives and animations for children in India.
As a part of the animation fraternity for over 25 years, he has been involved in multiple projects ranging from the use of animation for education to his latest project where he plans to compile his crowd-based illustrations into a book for others to refer.
Prosenjit Ganguly
Prosenjit Ganguly is an independent Animation Film Designer, screenwriter and voice over artist.
His short films have been showcased at prestigious film festivals in over 20 countries and have won several international awards and nominations.
His creative energy and passion for the field of animation are highly infectious. In fact his enthusiastic and highly motivating workshops and talks have been and continue to be inspirational for several of us in the field of animation. His take-home message for us is "No matter what you do, you need intensity within it!"
Prakash Moorthy
Prakash Moorthy, a faculty from the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology is an Animation Film Maker, Production Designer and Writer. He formulated the curriculum for Animation Cinema at the 'Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute'.
"Animation has the capacity and the capability to compress things, to be symbolic, to be drastic yet communicable" - says Prakash Moorthy.
D'source presents an interview with Prakash Moorthy, where he shares with us some of his wonderful experiences and thoughts on cinema, writing for animation, virtual reality and much more
Chetan Sashital
Do you remember the famous jingle 'Kya aap closeup karte hain'? or the lovable Baloo the bear, or the catchy tunes sung by Alladin's genie?
The man behind these unforgettable, ear-catching, and amazingly diverse voices is Chetan Sashital, the famous voice-over artist.
He has won several prestigious awards for excellence in the field of voicing both in India and abroad including the award for the Best Voice Talent offered by the Indian Academy of Advertising and Film Art for 7 consecutive years from 1993 to 1999. He is presently the C.E.O & C.C.O of Chatterbox India P. Ltd. Chatterbox India P. ltd. is a creative hot-shop involved in ideation and execution, mainly for Radio and T.V media.
D'source presents a candid interview with this amazingly versatile voice-over artist, where he shares his inspiring story as a voice actor in the Indian animation industry over the past several decades. We are sure that young talent aspiring to be voice-over artists in the industry have a lot to learn from this amazingly-talented artist!
Many more such videos of the veteran Indian animators - COMING SOON.
