Largest gathering of Indian animation professionals under one roof
Organised by ASIFA India and supported by TASI, MAAC & R&H India, International Animation Day 2005 witnessed the largest Indian animation gathering under one roof so far.
The 250 strong crowd was proof that the seeds of unity had been sown in the fields of Indian animation.
The celebrations included an awards ceremony, screenings of ASIFA showreels from across the world and a panel which discussed animation in all earnest, inspired in part by chief guest Prahlad Kakkar’s rousing speech where the celebrated ad film maker elaborated upon the quirkiness as well as the lost innocence that animation invokes.
Welcoming the animators, ASIFA India President Emeritus Bill Dennis pointed out that “In the six years that I have been involved with Indian animation, a great deal of improvement has taken place”
Chief Guest Prahalad Kakkar began by sharing with the audience, how it was Ram Mohan who helped him with his first film.
“The first film I ever made was thanks to Ram Mohan. It was a love poem that I wanted to shoot, I had a princely sum of 400 Rupees but that wasn’t enough to make my movie. It was Ram Mohan who suggested to me to shoot stills and offered to reanimate them” shared Kakkar.
“When no girl was ready to star in my film, I tricked one girl by taking stills of hers on the pretext of seeing whether she would suit the role. I then gave the stills to Ram Mohan who needless to say, sequence animated them with his animation camera and lo my first film was ready” he added.
Following is some original ‘KakkarSpeak’ which revealed that the ad film maker’s deep insight on the art and psyche of animation.
Who says animation is for kids only?
Kakkar offered a very insightful perspective saying,”Animation is meant for everybody, especially for adults. They enjoy animation in a much more deeper way becuase they realise the innocent world that they have lost. Animation is a tremendous economic potential for India and it will garner force, what is needed right now is seed money”
Indians are going to change the way the world looks at animation
Indians are going to change the way the world looks at animation becuase we look at life in a very different way. Indians have a very special brand of humor, there are very few people in the world that crack jokes about themselves the way we do.
There has to be some Khujli within you to make you want to be animator
An animator is someone who articulates through drawing. The first pre requisite for training in animation has to be drawing. There has to be some khujli to say something in an exagerrated & different manner. If you cannot develop your style, then you can never be the best!
I should have been an animator, but I couldn’t draw well. If you cant draw well then no amount of technology or breathing down people’s necks will ever make you a good animator.
The awards ceremony and screenings that followed witnessed some great Indian animation being showcased.
Following is a list of winners.
Vaibhav Kumaresh making his acceptance speech
Proffesional Category
Simi Nallaseth for In the Air (Animated music video)
Narayan Shi for The Friend
Vaibhav Kumaresh for Amaron Battery Pandu Mangal
Chetan Sharma for Elf Moto4 Gold Thangarajan
Vaibhav Kumaresh & R&H India for Alley Chase
Student Category
Ranveer Singh Sahmbi for Swoosh
Sahal Merchant for The Bench
Partha Das for It was raining.
Sangram Borse for The common story
3D Rage (MAAC) for Takes you higher
The panel discussion on Education in Indian Animation had the speakers discussing the topic in all earnest. Moderated by Bill Dennis, the panel comprised of NID Animation Co-ordinator Sekhar Mukherjee, TASI secretary Ranjit Singh, Vaibhav Studios head Vaibhav Kumaresh, Animation Professional Ashish Kulkarni, VCL GM K Chandrashekhar and MEL CEO Rajesh Turakhia.
Government support in animation education
There were varying perspectives on this issue. While KC, Turakhia and Sekhar Mukherjee felt that government support was essential. Ashish Kulkarni and Ranjit Singh felt that the bus would be missed if one waited for the Government.
“We do need government attention towards animation. What we have done at MAAC is tried to subsidise it a bit. If the government takes initiatives then a lot more can be achieved” said Turakhia.
“I believe there has to be an active networking between NID, Government and the industry” opined Mukherjee.
“I believe that we use the Government as a beating bag. The onus lies on us to prove to the government and come up with viable schemes and propositions. Government is a facilitator. The important thing is that the Culture of the Independent animator has to take root in the country” stated Ranjit Singh.
“If we wait for the government to do things then it will not happen. Three years hence we shall still be discussing government support at the International Animation Day 2008 celebrations” warned Kulkarni.
While KC too felt that the bus would be missed, he felt that the onus was on the government to recognise the potential.
“India is running out of time. Small countries like Irish and Welsh republics come to us and ask us to set up studios there. If these small countries can see the potential than India which is relatively a superpower should have a lot more to offer. 2D-3D doesn’t matter, what we need is to wake up to the economics around animation. We should set up a large training institute with a capacity of training tens of thousands. the government should provide land, subsidise power and provide bank loans to help build and manage such centres” said KC.
Art fundamentals, Education and training.
Art fundamentals are extremely necessary in animation. Sadly most institutes in the country are ignoring this.
“We have to realise that its all about art, not geometric co ordinates. Passion and madness is what is needed. The education has to be all about finding your madness” exclaimed NID’s Mukherjee
Pointing out the difference between training and education Vaibhav Kumaresh shared,”Let’s not mix education with training. Both serve their needs but lets not mix the two. Education is vast, it gives an environment for a person to explore the art and the medium. Training is a very small part of education.
” I wish that there were 10 NIDs across India” he added.
“2D is a part of the foundation. We are not teaching anything like drawing, writing stories, backgrounds and art fundamentals in India. What we are teaching is more of post production” emphasised Kulkarni.
“The best guys in the Industry that I see are from the initial ZICA batch, or the many people trained under Ram Mohan. The point is that these professionals have been trained in 2D and that’s why they are good” he added.
“Culture of the Independent animator has to take root in the country” was Tony’s take.
Animators from the industry need to share their Knowledge
How muchsoever one may invest in traing infrastructure, finally it is talented faculty that could make the difference The panel also thought that it was necessary to get animators to share their knowledge with the industry.
“I would ask all the trained professionals out here to please come ahead and volunteer their time so that the Industry can have more animators. It will be good for the entire industry” said Turakhia.
Echoing Turakhia’s sentiments Kulkarni added,”Hype is phenomenal but there is no direction. TASI & ASIFA should take this as a challengeto push the cause of training. If we wait for Let’s force the good artists and animators to teach & share. The fact of the matter is that artists are afraid of creating competition. If we can make the artists feel secure and convince them to go ahead and share then things will change”
“It is sad that I have met a number of senior animators but none of them are interested in training. We need more people like Ram Mohan who is single handedly responsible for giving the Industry so many animators” shared Tony.
“Let’s clone Ram Mohan” : Dennis’ jestful suggestion to solve Indian animation education problems