Trivandrum based Toonz Animation Studio’s animated feature ‘Hanuman – The Immortal 2’ has won the INFOCOM-ASSOCHAM EME AWARDS 2013 for the Best Indian Animated Feature Film (Non-Theatrical).
U.K. Prakashan, the director of the film received the award from Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Shri Kapil Sibal at the ceremony held at the India Habitat Centre, Delhi.
The film set in war-torn Lanka is a modern day portrayal of the legendary Hero’s confrontation with a mutant demon warrior who is bent on reawakening the Asura race. Hanuman Immortal -2 had also won
The FICCI BAF 2012 award for Best Animated Film (Home Video).
The Excellence in Media & Entertainment [EME] Awards, an International Competition recognizes the highest talent in Animation & VFX. INFOCOM has partnered with ASSOCHAM, India’s premier Industry organization for constituting this award.
Animationxpress’ Ishpreet Chandock caught up with the captain of the ship himself, U.K. Prakashan talking about this achievement.
Prakashan has been in the Animation Industry for 14 years. After completing his Bachelors in Fine Arts from Trivandrum Arts College, he joined Toonz Animation in 1999 as an animator. He is currently an Animation Director with Toonz Animation.
He has also worked in a number of International projects of Toonz like Geofrette (Canada), Three Bears (Neptuno, Spain), Katya & the Nut cracker (John Carry Studio, UK), Great White Tiger (Children of Faith, USA), Prezzy (Rainbow Animation, Italy), Tommy & Oscar (Rainbow Animation, Italy), Turtle Island ( LAFETTE Animation, Canada).
As director, he has worked on 14 episodes of HIP HIP HOORAY a pre-school educational DVD series for Helbling Languages, Italy. The recent Toonz project for which he is the Director is Pakdam Pakadai commissioned by Nickelodeon India.
“It is indeed a prestigious honor for the entire team of Hanuman Immortal 2. This is my debut film as a Director so it is extra-special for me. The film’s underlying theme is pro- nature, about a hero’s struggle to protect and preserve nature from an evil force that advocates mass destruction. The go-green movement is a concept that is very dear to me.” says U.K. Prakashan, Director, Hanuman The Immortal 2
“The script was given by noted film maker Prosenjit Ganguly, the Chief creative producer was Hari Varma who was instrumental in setting the film’s pace and he overlooked all the key creative aspects. Rathan
Sam George was the head producer and Suriya Thomas the producer. The character designer was Abhilash and Music was by then Tony Wilson. Post Production was overlooked by Philip and Hari.”
Adding more on the production, he says” The extremely tight schedules and deadlines that we had to stick to was the trickiest part. We completed the film within 6 months and there were plenty of days when we had to put in around 16- 17 hours of work per day.”
“With accolades you have no other option but to raise the bar even higher. Now we have to keep striving to maintain this.” he concluded
“Awards have a way of getting the best out of people. The EME awards are a great platform that the Entertainment & Media circuits look up to and we are indeed honored. Kudos to the entire Toonz team that toiled day and night to bring out an outstanding film” says Mr. P Jayakumar, CEO, Toonz Animation.