Hasta La Motion!

Earlier this month, AnimationXpress reported about Contiloe Pictures’ historical period drama 21 Sarfarosh: Saragarhi 1897 to stream on Netflix, after a successful TV run.

With this, Contiloe Pictures continues to wow audiences with its varied content ranging across different genres. Behind this success saga, lies the vision and relentless pursuit of Contiloe Pictures CEO and founder Abhimanyu Singh.

Right after graduation, Singh started his first independent production for public broadcaster, Doordarshan under the banner of Contiloe Pictures which has since emerged into one of the leading production companies in India. Having successfully produced over 100 shows and two feature films under his banner he continues to focus on large productions yet he is deeply rooted in bringing out the depth in his stories.

Being called as the pioneer in producing Historical and Mythological shows, Singh has successfully produced shows across genres including historical, crime, horror, thriller, events, formats, comedies, animation and mini-series, featuring nearly 5000+ hours of content.

Abhimanyu Singh

AnimationXpress chats with Singh, the man behind the matter :

> You’ve been in the industry for quite a long time. Can you tell us about how the journey has been?

It began with making shows in the year 1995, it’s been 22 years, and it still feels like we started yesterday. There’s so much to do and so much to learn! We started by making a thriller, after which we moved to doing a lot of film-based content and then we moved on to doing a horror show where we used a lot of visual effects for the first time. This was in the year 2002. When we used VFX for the first time to tell stories, we realized how stories could be told in a newer manner, fresher manner with more imagination rather than being confined to only a camera and the limitations of the real world.

Soon after we started doing historicals where we used a lot of our knowledge of visual effects to enhance the experience for viewers.  Jhansi Ki Rani in 2008 was the first historical we did and to date we have done over 3000 episodes of various historicals, each time using animation and visual effects to improve the viewing experience.

> How has the scenario changed in the industry since you started, for both good and bad?

The good part is that now, you have the opportunity of telling and making variety entertainment. Earlier, it was largely confined to soaps, so 80-90 per cent of all channel FPCs were dominated by soaps. Now you have more content – horrors, thrillers, historicals, mythological, giving creators more of a leverage to show their creative skill sets as well as to tell a variety of stories. This has led to a huge amount of challenges being faced by makers as far as talent is concerned. While content requirement has increased many fold, there are still only a handful of skilled writers, directors, DOP’s and so on, therefore it has been a challenge to get good talent.

> Having created more than 5000+ hours of premium television content varying across different genres, how has content and its treatment changed?

Again, now, we have the opportunity to create a variety of entertainment and we also have multiple mediums to showcase it. We have more content genres as opposed to having only soaps.

> How does it feel to have won the National Award in animation for Mahayoddha Rama? What was the inspiration behind making this film?

Obviously, it feels great to get a National Award. Any actor, any creator getting honoured by the president of India is a great privilege. I always imagined what Ravan would be if all his heads could talk and that’s where the idea of Mahayoddha Rama emerged. At that stage, we engaged writers and creators. That was an early stage in 3D animation and it took us 10 years to complete what we had started in 2007.

> Can you elucidate on the process of making this film and the techniques used?

The project started as a thought in 2007 and brought on to the floor in 2008. The best talents in the industry were involved in the team to make the thought reach the big screen. One team in Mumbai and another in Chennai were working simultaneously.

At the beginning of this project, the CGI industry in India was at a learning stage and the technology was also very primitive as compared to today. So it’s only the dedication and the quality of people associated with the project that helped us. Once the broad story was approved, we started conceptualising the characters, props and locations. Then we moved on to the storyboard and animatics to get everyone on the same page.

With the project on full swing and artists at their creative best everyone was enjoying the ride and hoping for a fruitful completion. It took us seven years to complete this project. Artists involved in the project are serving the industry in the most of senior positions of different animation and VFX studios around the world. And as always we got paid for all the dues, time and effort we put in to it in the form of a National Award in 2016.

> Technology seems to have played and still continues to play a huge role in your productions. How has its use changed over the years?

• It has always helped us to tell stories in a different manner
• Technology and VFX always helps in storytelling and realizing your imagination

> Contiloe is the first in the country to bring Motion Capture Technology to the small screen with Vighnaharta Ganesh. Can you throw some light on the same; about the thought behind it and creating a milestone?

Ganesha has never looked like Ganesha the way we see him in traditional art. Usually this is in the realm of makeup – they take an actor and plaster a prosthetic trunk on the nose. So, the perspective of the way Ganesha looks, the way his eyes look, the way his nose looks, the way his mouth and trunk are, which is more the face of an elephant, can never match the face of a human being by putting a trunk on his nose. This was the problem.

So, when we researched, the solution was Motion Capture Technology.  It had been used to create 3D animation in films like Avatar and Planet of the Apes where you could take an animated character and put in the emotions of a human being. Therefore, we imported this technology, did an R&D and decided that this was the apt technology to move with and went ahead and actioned it. It was challenging because Avatar was a three-hour film made over three years. We were going to practically be making an episode a day or 260 episodes in 365 days. So with using this technology, we used render farms in China and that’s how we came up with the process that was sustainable for a daily show.

‘Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat’ from Contiloe

> According to you what’s the importance of indigenously created content?

I think every part of the world will have their own stories to tell and people want to hear these stories. They want to see the stories and they want their children to see these stories. Hence, it’s important that on a world stage, all kinds of content thrives and therefore, indigenously created content needs to be there. You’ll have great stories like, Fauda from Israel that the world is watching. You’ll have a show like Money Heist, which has been made in Spain which has become a big hit across the world. Then, House of Cards that are doing extremely well everywhere across the world. For India, it is a country rich with stories and indigenously made content will be the order of the day.

> What’s in pipeline from the house of Contiloe?

We are working on Taj, a digital series with Applause Entertainment. It’s being planned on a very large scale. On the television front, we are doing a show which is based on wrestling about a girl who goes against all odds to become a gold medalist in the Olympics. These are some of the new ideas that we are coming up with. Apart from this, we are working on some new historical mythological ideas which we will keep you posted on.

The post Abhimanyu Singh uncut on the soaring success of Contiloe Pictures appeared first on AnimationXpress.

The talented group of students of Whistling Woods School of Animation left an impeccable impression at Comic Con 2018. With the guidance and support of Whistling Woods School of Animation HOD- Animation Yusuf Mehta, the students displayed some exclusive and original comics aimed to transfer the reader into a world of awe-inspiring possibilities.

Whistling Woods International president Meghna Ghai Puri quoted, “At Whistling Woods, we encourage our students to think out of the box and challenge the status quo. It is excellent what these young minds had created! I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Yusuf Mehta for his constant endeavor to lead and guide and most importantly nurture the innate potential in our students that have successfully translated into fine works of art.”

These are the illustrative comics on display at the Comic Con booth:

Nirvahana Vol 1:

Volume 1 of Nirvahana was the best-selling comic in Comic Con 2017. A unique amalgamation of Indian Folk art styles and culturally rich stories, Nirvahana offered the audience the chance to revisit old folktales portrayed through the vision of Indian aesthetics. One can explore comics made in the Gond art style from Central India, Pattachitra from East India and Kalamkari from South India.

Nirvahana Vol 2:

Taking off from the idea of volume one, Nirvahana Volume 2 is also a reflection of Indian folk art styles portraying the stories that either are a legend or a myth among the people. With unique qualities depicting each of the stories, in this volume, one can see the art forms of Pahari from North India, Mughal style paintings from West India and Kerala Mural Painting from South India.

Nirvahana Vol 3:

Volume 3 of Nirvahana is also an anthology of short comics but in this, the team decided to take on Western art styles while still keeping the stories indigenous to India. Going around the countless art styles prevalent through the history of art, the artists decided to take up Ukiyo-e from Japan, the Ottoman folk art from Turkey and the style of Impressionism from Europe, the works of the renowned artist, Vincent Van Gogh.

Menekapura:

Menekapura is a mix of an illustration book and a graphic novel. This unique venture portrays the life of a Queenpin who rules over a red light area called Menekapura. This gritty action-packed narrative offers the reader the chance to enter a world of underworld politics, drug trade and the sheer of power, will and determination of the one everyone calls Laxmi Tai.

Ephemeral:

Ephemeral as the word denotes refers to the temporary and transitional nature of every phenomena known to us in our universe. Likewise, the poems contained within this book pertain to themes such as space and feelings both of which are largely incomprehensible and eternal as we can never fully understand or, conquer them. Hence, the following poems that deal with the above two themes go hand in hand with the title of the book Ephemeral, as they lay emphasis on the very short time we have to re-examine the jaded image of ourselves and our worldly views through the vast possibilities we are presented with internally and externally but choose to ignore.

Adhikaar:

This collection of comics talks about the civil rights and the extents to which people have had to go to attain justice in the name of the rights they hold. This version, in particular, speaks of the experiences faced by Muslim women, one in case of the system of triple talaaq, and the other in case of women drivers in the country of Saudi Arabia.

Shaktirupen:

It is very difficult to be a single parent, especially in the society that we live in. Shaktirupen is the story of a single mother, trying to raise her daughter while shielding her from the hardships that she has had to face. It is a story about faith and being able to do the right things for the people who you love. And, this story is dedicated to all the mothers.

Born Again:

This action-adventure comic is a story about a man on a mission, training to fight his foes and willing to prove his worth to the people who matter. A take on creating a manga style comic, Born Again offers a thrilling ride to adventure seekers and ardent readers alike.

The comics are a perfect amalgamation of excellent literature and visual representation, showcasing the students’ creativity to bring the comic characters to life in a splendid manner.

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Toonz Animation’s YouTube channel Chotoonz TV is the most sought after channel in the comedy kids’ genre. The studio was planning to start a property of its own for this YouTube channel, and thus, Boo Bah B reached the audience.

The idea is from an internal animation director. Talking to AnimationXpress, Toonz Animation founder P Jayakumar mentioned that though the series will be currently seen on YouTube, the team is planning to take it to television and other OTT platforms later.

Launched on 15 December, the series have already gathered 25,000 plus views. “We are expecting more views around the Christmas season as kids will be watching the screens during vacations,” added Jayakumar.

Targeted at the age group between four to nine years of age, we will be streaming around 104 episodes of five minutes each,” Jayakumar said “and the channel plans to stream a new episode every week during this festive season.

Being an original property from Toonz Animation, the studio holds all the IP rights for Boo Bah B . The digital promotional activities are easier for Toonz Animation as the YouTube channel, Chotoonz is already well established and helps reach the content to the global market.

Looking at the love kids have for animals, the team decided to keep the animals as the main characters. “The show is an original and doesn’t have any legacy behind it, and hence need to gaze more eyeballs, hence the character selection,” Toonz Animation creative director Renju Ramesh said.

Renju further explained the process of animation stating that the series is an outcome of hard-work done by the team since June 2017. “It was earlier a chase comedy, but we liked the concept and decided to develop it into series. One of our directors came up with the styling and once the script was finalised, we began with the pre-production,” he explained.

With the response the series is receiving, Jayakumar further has plans to launch consumer products of the characters worldwide and make them more popular.

The team wishes that the characters become as popular as the iconic Tom and Jerry and they abide by their motive of reaching the younger generation largely. “We just want the kids to love this series. We are trying to get the episodes out so that the kids can enjoy them during their vacations,” Renju concluded.

The post Toonz Animation’s ‘Boo Bah B’ will make Christmas merrier for kids appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Young, intelligent and good-looking is the Sun TV Network’s Kushi TV programming manager Anugraha Michealine Pearly B. The dusky lady has had hands-on experience across various verticals in the media and entertainment industry – copy, content, process and technical writing, character writing translating. After working for a short period for Star Vijay, Pearly B starting an ad agency and then tried her hand at organising events. She says that she has never hesitated to try something new.

Excerpts of an interaction Pearly B had with AnimationXpress Tarachand Wanvari:

Tell us something about (a) yourself (b) Kushi TV/Sun Network and your role/responsibility in it. How long have (c) your company (d) you personally been in this business?

I head the programming for Kushi TV, a regional kids entertainment television channel of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana from the South Indian entertainment giant, Sun TV Network and a pioneer in offering entertainment in the local language to kids of the two states. The USP of Kushi is to prepare our little audiences all set for better tomorrow through content from across the world and the in-house shows, interactive entertainment, events and activities we do. We sow positivity through whatever we have to offer the audience.

I ideate and design content that goes into my channel and creates a bigger picture for the channel. I look into the overall 360 promotions of the channel across social networking sites, PR, content markets, manage to cross-functional teams and responsible for the synergy.

Kushi TV will complete 10 years in the business shortly. While I started my career 11 years ago, I’ve been with the channel for the past three years.

Which markets do you serve? What are the products/brands/licenses that you handle and the companies that you are associated with? Both as a buyer and as a seller – if that applies to you.

Sun TV Network has got a huge presence in the South Indian kids’ entertainment space. As I said earlier, I head the programming for Kushi TV, which caters to Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, its primary language being Telugu, one of the most of the popular languages of India.

We’d pick a variety of products that instantly become real-time buddies to our children audience and we carefully pick content that helps parent choose us over other channels for the quality of content.  As our TG being 2 years to 14 years – we have preschool, edutainment, information and entertainment content to fit in the new age preferences.

We always look out for best international IPs and premium content. We buy majorly from all big players across the globe. We are very proud to say that we are serving a slice of the parts of the world to our children.

Some of the topmost series on Kushi are Heidi 3D, Garfield, Hot Wheels, Talking Tom, Robot Trains, Matt Hatters etc. The companies that we are associated are huge names like Studio 100, Cyber Group, Media Toon, Viacom International, NBC Universal, Jet Pack Distribution, Mattel etc.

What are the other places that you visit for content procurement? At what level does your company enter into a partnership with the content creator/s? Do you mentor good ideas and IP from the nascent to the completion stage?

Some of the major content markets that we get associated with are MIPCOM, MIPTV, ATF, TV Rendezvous.

Mentoring ideas have always been a part of the channel’s agenda. We do it religiously to have better content and content that meets our channel requirements and strategies.  A few of the big properties on our channels are Bommi & Friends, Happy Kid, in-house short movies for our children.

How can content be made to be globally accepted? What are the sensibilities that have to be considered at the ideation/creation stage so that content is accepted irrespective of geography, political, racial, religious, cultural and other differences?

The best part about kids and their sensibilities are that they are not very different from each other all across the globe. Children are way too different from adults. Yes, they have preferences but genuine simple things do big wonders to children all across. It is highly important to strike a chord with the child who watches us and make that initial connection and the setting of the content doesn’t play a big part. The underlying core theme has to appeal to children and the treatment can vary based on the geography, race, religion and what not. It will still work.

What is your take on Indian products? How do they compare with other countries? What do you think they lack? What do you think needs improvement?

Today, the Indian animators and content creators unearth the rare stories from our own land which is a very remarkable advancement in the animation industry. I have witnessed such stories personally at ABAI. They are being brilliant. Whereas to compete with big giants from all across the globe and to cater to the global audience we really need to up the game in unique storytelling techniques which will turn heads. The Indian content producers have to work on a wholesome packaging. Most content that was screened at ABAI was 3D. My suggestion is, we can try different animation techniques and look at other art forms too.

What has been your experience with ABAI’s B2B events like? I think this was the first B2B summit for you? 

Yes, this is my first ABAI B2B summit. To meet like-minded people, industry stalwarts, to be more focused certainly creates new awareness and unfolds new avenues for future development in the content space. The discussions with co-creators and content buyers and the panels have opened up new ways of approach. It was a great opportunity to connect with the right people and work amicably. It is professionally enhancing. There’s never a minute wasted and it all meant business. New connections made. Fresh ideas discussed. It was complete.

 What is your take on pitchers (a) in India at ABAI B2B (b) other similar Indian/foreign events in India (c) in other events in other geographies? How do you think they differ and what are their similarities? What do Indian pitchers lack, and what needs improvement?

ABAI had offered a wonderful platform to the content creators and the content producers have made all the effort to make this opportunity work. A few of the pitchers I met were very confident about the products. But there are a few pointers I’d like to add to make it much easier for both the sellers and the buyers.

1. Pricing – Content creators should have the metrics handy. The buyer has a set budget and knows what will work for them content wise and budget wise. So putting numbers across the project will help the buyer.
2. Package – Having a vision for the product always adds value. Presenting a selling (Licensing and merchandising) model to the buyer works wonders.
3. Presentation skills – The meticulously created content has to be presented with all its merits to convince the buyer. So put some effort into presenting help.
4. Know Your USP – Why should the buyer buy your content over others? The content creators should be well informed of their USP and sell that proposition.

What do you think of ABAI’s initiatives for bringing buyers and pitchers together? Have/will they been/be fruitful for you? What needs improvement? What has been lacking?

This initiative by ABAI along with the Government of Karnataka has offered a wonderful platform to both sellers and buyers. It has brought together national and international buyers from various parts of the world to facilitate the Indian sellers who otherwise should have gone in search of these sellers from market to market. I personally have met content that would work for our channels. The summit was well planned and well organised.

For events such as ABAI’s B2B, could you explain the various stages taken and the time frames involved before the dotted line is signed by your company?

There is no fixed time frame or stages that I can quote here as it will completely differ from product to product. As far as ABAI B2B summit is concerned, we have made it a point to take every project to and through the right channel for quick and hassle-free decisions.

Anything else that you would like to share?

We at Kids Entertainment Channels at Sun TV Network are looking at fun, fantasy, mythological content. We are actively in search of content both local and international. ABAI B2B summit has been a great market and we are looking forward to being a part of such markets in India in future. I would like to personally thank you and AnimationXpress for being fabulous.

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