After Bal Hanuman- Return of the Demon, Astute Media Vision has developed the 4th part in the Bal Hanuman feature franchise- Bal Hanuman 4: Attack of the Universe. The studio team of 30 artists took around 9 months to complete this theatrical feature which is expected to release next month. The film is approximately 72 minutes long and is targeted at 4-16 yrs age group.
Talking to AnimationXpress.com Pankaj Sharma, Director of Bal Hanuman 4 & Owner of Astute Media Vision shares, “Film is full of fun, conspiracy, action, sporty moments and of course with a strong message from Bal Hanuman. It is related to the previous feature but can be understood independently on its own. The Kabaddi match between monkeys and crocodiles is the high point of this film.”
In Bal Hanuman 4, Monkey Head Chhote Maharaj convinces his Lieutenants Rocket and Locket to play a Kabbadi match with crocodiles headed by Gutter and Shutter in order to end hostility and make peace in the area. But certainly something dangerously weird is cooking in the crocodile’s group as they are conspiring to make Dreaded Danavraj alive with the help of their new allies, the Aliens, who attacks the Earth in order to destroy plantation and kill the animals to convert them into fuel to fulfill the energy demand of their planet. Bal Hanuman comes to the rescue. Will Bal Hanuman be able to unite Monkeys and Crocodiles to save earth from the attack of aliens and Hi-Tech Danavraj with New Powers?
Pankaj is in talks with various distributors for the film. “The first two releases of Bal Ganesha was done by PVR, Chuttanki was done by Mukta ArtDelhi and this one is in Mumbai so we are not sure, as it is very difficult to release an animation film in India”.
About the challenges faced, Pankaj asserts, “Bal Hanuman 4 is the fourth part so when people like the first part, second is made, when they like the second, third is made and so on. The challenging part is to maintain the transition, and also to keep the entity of the story intact when you are making a mythological kind of a film. Also, the kind of concept which I design and wrote was a challenging task”.
Bal Hanuman 4 is developed as normal 2D film unlike its predecessor which was a stereoscopic 3D. Astute Media Vision’s next project will be stereoscopic 3D animated film. The studio has already finished the pre-production part of the film and is also using few ‘different and new techniques for the film.
Astute with many IPs to its credit is now looking for collaboration and outsourcing project as well. Apart from this Astute is also planning to start a training centre where passed out students can get the hands-on experience by working on Astute’s professional projects.
“First we have thought of establishing a school but now we have decided to create a training centre. It will be paid internship kind of thing. That is the thing we are planning to start, as there are already many institutes for teaching courses. Students can work on our films and projects. We will take 2-3 months to establish it but we will do it soon as it will help our production line as well”, Pankaj concludes.