After completing Kutti Chetan, slated for release this summer , Hyderabad based Dreams Pvt Ltd is working on another full length animated film, The Trap - Chakravyuha. The 90 min 2D cum 3D animated film is targeted for a summer 2009 theatrical release and has an approximate budget of Rs 21 crores, it is currently in the pre production stage with story boarding on even as we go to print.

The Trap is the story of Abhimanyu, the legendary teenaged warrior from the Mahabharata. As per the plans, the film would be released in Hindi, English, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and three international languages like Chinese, Japanese and Malay.

The story line, concept and the research part of the film is done in India, while main character designing has been done by Japanese and Philippine artists. The company is looking to outsource the 3D modelling and sets, and is in talks with an Australia based animation studio regarding the same.

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At the same time the studio is working on the music part of the film for which they are in talks with Indian Bands.

When asked about the USP of the film, Deepak Jadhav, Director of the film, who has also produced the film alongwith V Raj, said, “The Trap-Chakravyuha is the story of the mythological character Abhimanyu from the great epic ‘Mahabharata’. The whole movie is based on the crucial day when Abhimanyu enters the war-field gets trapped and fights with Kaurava’s. Abhimanyu’s story in the Mahabharatha is a phase where all the important characters- The Pandavas, the Kauravas and the great Lord Krishna play an important role and can be seen together. This movie is being created with a view to create a unique style to Indian animation like the Anime and Manga style and also classical style of Walt Disney. The work of this movie is being done in India, Japan and Philippines. All the characters of this movie are being developed with a trendy touch and the look, the weapons, the costumes of the characters will be little modernized. This will defiantly grab the attention of the whole world. Overall it is a movie which is targeted for age group of 14 and above and it will also head towards the international market. I am sure they would love to watch the Indian content in their own language.”

Why the name The Trap? “Actually the complete name is ‘The Trap – Chakravyuha’, it’s a part of great epic Mahabharata. I wanted to make this film in modern way, so the first and one of the most important step was choosing, hence I felt that in order to describe Chakravyuha there is no better word that THE TRAP,” replied Deepak.

Speaking on choosing this subject for the film, he said, “I had always thought that when I make an Indian mythological film, it will be on the international standards. I was very much impressed by Japanese Anime style, so I decided to do mythological concept using same anime kind of style. This subject gives me a lot of material for action and effects. Also I present an Indian story in highly modern style to today’s Indian kids or teenagers who are very much fond of Japan’s Anime or Manga.

While working on the script, the company made sure that there will be huge scope for merchandising and console or video gaming. They are in talks with some big time gaming studios to develop the game out of TRAP.

The classy character designs done for The Trap – Chakravyuha have an international feel. Says Deepak, “Since I wanted to try Anime kind of animation style I used Japanese and Philippines base artist. Also some of the characters are done in India. I have done the “Krishna” character since I wanted to give it a special treatment.”

A lot of research has gone into the theme since it is a mythological subject but with a special treatment. “We did a lot of research on this particular subject through materials from Internet and books. Also I have studied lots of Anime and similar kind of stuff out of which Avatar Series, Ghost in the shell were my favourite. Since we are trying to develop some unique animation style which will be a combination of Anime and traditional animation style, we are still doing our research to get the same.”

Work on the project started in November 2007 wherein Deepak Jadhav and Samit Basu have worked on script and screen play, and more than 21 artists from India, Japan, Philippines and Korea worked on concept, characters and set designing. Right now four story board artist from Tokyo, Japan are working on board. James Palabay and Kaizar Mandal are the creative directors, while John Amar, M Saravanan and Ashutosh Naik are the production designers.

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