Re Lucky Dog - having followed the course of animation in India since the early 80’s I’ve always felt that the future lies in the hands of independents, and it’s been a long journey.
A bit like imagining what American animation would be like if Disney’s “Snow White” had not been the huge success that it was.
The early ‘00’s were marked by a few prestigious, well-financed features launched to great fanfare but that uniformly tanked despite the involvement of many talents - a case of running before you can walk.
Sitting here in London and taking a somewhat cynical view of what was playing out , a view shared by Ram Mohan, the director of the “Ramayana”, I think I may have annoyed a few of the main players but frankly, no one was going to listen to what I had to say..:)
I do remember a very respected animation scholar telling me that she “didn’t expect much” when it came to animation from India so I guess it’s just been a matter of time for things to gain traction as people work in private on their films.
The big, blousy, high profile projects have mostly failed and carry a great deal of financial risk that demand international distribution, but that hasn’t been forthcoming in the past and the subjects have been too localised - the “Ramayana” being a case in point.
Another aspect has been access & I think YouTube has been the big game changer as far as getting those independent shorts out there and finding an audience eg in the case of Eekasaurus’ films - films are no longer subject to the whims of possessive distributors.
Re Lucky Dog - having followed the course of animation in India since the early 80’s I’ve always felt that the future lies in the hands of independents, and it’s been a long journey.
A bit like imagining what American animation would be like if Disney’s “Snow White” had not been the huge success that it was.
The early ‘00’s were marked by a few prestigious, well-financed features launched to great fanfare but that uniformly tanked despite the involvement of many talents - a case of running before you can walk.
Sitting here in London and taking a somewhat cynical view of what was playing out , a view shared by Ram Mohan, the director of the “Ramayana”, I think I may have annoyed a few of the main players but frankly, no one was going to listen to what I had to say..:)
I do remember a very respected animation scholar telling me that she “didn’t expect much” when it came to animation from India so I guess it’s just been a matter of time for things to gain traction as people work in private on their films.
The big, blousy, high profile projects have mostly failed and carry a great deal of financial risk that demand international distribution, but that hasn’t been forthcoming in the past and the subjects have been too localised - the “Ramayana” being a case in point.
Another aspect has been access & I think YouTube has been the big game changer as far as getting those independent shorts out there and finding an audience eg in the case of Eekasaurus’ films - films are no longer subject to the whims of possessive distributors.