CG 'Item Girl' - Lady Chaterjee

Here's a hottie that's all set to give the silver and small screen sirens a run for their money. And the good news is that she's animated!

Lady Chaterjee, India's first CG animated 'Item girl' is yet another milestone as Indian mainstream entertainment embraces animation.

The animated Lady Chaterjee stars in Sawan Dutta's forthcoming album by the same name called 'Lady Chatterjee'. The album is published by Sa Re Ga Ma India while the CG development & production for the animated music video has been done by Delhi Based Sonic Images which is headed by CB Arun Kumar who was formerly head of Moving Picture Company's Animation division.

Digital Cyber Artist - Lady Chaterjee

The Item girl is not just a character in an animation video but a full time cyber artist. The first music video featuring Lady C is 3:20 minutes in length and is fully CG animated.

True to the nature of the content and its audience, the music video will have an exclusive launch online with a microsite on Yahoo, followed by mobile phone and Music Channel premieres the next week. Most likely that MTV will be airing Lady C exclusively for the initial phase.

Speaking to Animation 'xpress, Sa Re Ga Ma India's Atul Chauramani said,"Today the way consumers consume music has changed, there's huge opportunity in the digital wireless space, mobile and online and there's a whole new community that can be catered to be via these mediums. Interestingly Sawan Dutta's Album 'Lady Chaterjee' is all about relationships that develop over the internet and cell phones. In keeping with the content and audience both being new age we decided to have new age characters and so we opted for CG"

"As is communicated by her name, Lady Chaterjee loves chatting. And since the album is all about relationships we thought it apt to do a take on the book Lady Chatterley's Lover by D H Lawrence. Our Lady C though doesn't move around in flowing victorian gowns but sports a jeans and a bindi instead" he added.

Sonic Images head CB Arun Kumar remarked,"The song was so interesting that we figured only a fully animated character will be able to the song justice. So we created Lady C the digital chat addicted item girl. Atul Chauramani of Sa Re Ga Ma was the only A&R expert to recognize the potential of Lady C as an animated chracter. We did take in some of Sa Re Ga Ma's inputs in the sense that we deleveloped and modified the character a bit and made her look sweeter and cuter than we had originally designed"

New Age Character - Lady Chaterjee

"The original Lady C was created in Maya. Then we shifted totally to 3DS max and the current lady C is fully developed and rendered using 3ds max V7 using the default scanline renderer. Image compositing has been done using Adobe After Effects and Digital Fusion" he added.

The animated item girl looks all set to shine in the limelight in the weeks to come. Even as Lady C is in the midst of being launched, the buzz around the CG siren is growing and the makers are already in the media spotlight.

"I must mention here that rarely does one come across artists such as Sawan Dutta who was more than happy for Lady C to be the star of her music video" remarked Churamani.

On being asked to comment on the same, the marketing savvy singer Sawan Dutta who is also the lyricist, composer, producer, arranger and engineer for the album, emphasised that more than being visible on the screen, her focus was on breaking clutter and pushing her product, the album.

"I find it funny when I'm asked if I had "any objections" about sharing the limelight on my album with Lady Chatterjee!" she remarked, continung, "Here's this perfect woman who is the perfect combination of everything a man can ask for in terms of looks. Who can do everything and much more than anything any real woman can do, without any star tantrums! Unlike any real woman she'll never grow old or fat, will never have a bad hair day or a pimple and will always do what she's told! Can you think of a more perfect person to have launched any album?"

Lady Chaterjee is a wonderful example of new age entertainment, where the marketing, distribution, medium and subject are all new age. Very indicative of the potential role that CG can play in entertainment in the times to come.

Keep reading Animation 'xpress for more updates as Lady Chaterjee sets Indian screens ablaze!