The second theatrical trailer of Contiloe Pictures and Pixion’s 3D CGI feature Mahayodhha Rama (MYR) is out. And if the first trailer whetted your appetite for watching a VFX laden epic on a huge canvas with the amazingly stylish Ravan then the second version will surely have you bowled over by introducing the supremely powerful hero of this saga, the Super Warrior Rama.

With 60 prints released in all A and B centers across India, the trailer is currently being screened at Fame, Fun, INOX, PVR and other multiplexes. This 2 min 48 sec trailer unveils the look of Rama and gives the glimpses of Rama’s journey from childhood to his ultimate conquest against the evil Ravan.

Produced and presented by Contiloe Pictures’ Abhimanyu Singh, directed by Raizada Rohit Jaising Vaid, the CG production for the Mahayoddha Rama is being done by one of India's leading studios, Pixion which is also the associate producer of the film.

The director, Rohit Vaid shares with AnimationXpress.com that he doesn’t miss an animation director on the project given the multi talented team of Pixion, with the CG head Ajay Pratap Singh, CG supervisor Raja Rajan and of animation supervisors with whom he works very closely and who make everything quite superb.

As far as the film goes he added, “From the complete epic of Ramayana which has numerous stories in it, we have stuck to the Ram and Ravana track. The trailer establishes the battle lines between Ram & Ravan. It shows Ram in different roles that of a Yodha (Warrior), of a lover and of a duty bound son. Through the trailer we wanted to establish that the movie is also a love story and to showcase the modern day rendition that we have given to this epic tale.”

MYR has a very distinct look which draws its inspiration from graphic novels for its color play and the distinct cover designs (not the comic illustrations) of Amar Chitra Kathas for its characters. The characters in the movie have fair amount of features and lines, giving them a realistic appeal but stopping short of photo realism giving it a ‘Paint Realistic’ look in Rohit’s words.

He adds that ‘coming up with the look was an arduous process which required a huge load of referencing, designing and trashing. But eventually, the hard work of the Contiloe team and the brilliance of the artists in Pixion given their incredible design team, came through and came up with a fabulously engaging look. We have gone for a very variant color palette for MYR. Ayodhya has a bright and cheerful look with a vast palette of blues, gold, silvers and orange, while Lanka is created with a lot of usage of blackish gold, green, red, black and sharp edges for designing properties and Kishkinda has a de-saturated and washed look,” he adds.

The complete figurine of the character of Rama in MYR is blue and the final shade was selected after going through ALMOST about 150 different shades of blue! “The reason for it being, firstly following the mytho tale which tells that the body of Lord Vishnu was blue. But more importantly because the color makes Rama stand out without giving him a halo. It establishes his divinity.”

Talking about the response of the trailer, Rohit shared, “Well there are three groups to be addressed – the animation puritans, the business boys who will ask how much money you have made or will make and the third is the audience. Most of the animation industry has been very supportive and love the look etc, and are keeping their fingers crossed hoping for this film to be the big break desperately needed for the animation industry. As far as business is concerned, I see MYR making a huge load of money. And the business boys are very hopeful about this film and love its look, feel and content. And finally, coming to the audience, our core responsibility, well everybody who has seen the trailer has equivocally said it’s superb.”

Apart from the theatres, the trailer is being showcased at various social networking sites and online media, kicking off a complete viral campaign. Currently in its rendering - compositing stage, 70% production of the project is done with a team of 200 artists working on it. The film will release in the latter half of 2009.

Pixion CG Head Ajay P Singh says, “Developing MYR has been a big challenge. It was a conscious decision, not make MYR a regular cartoon film. The Pixion Core Team got together and developed a unique style of animation, look and feel that would do justice to MYR. We have successfully developed various Plugins, Scripts and a Flexible Pipeline for it, which has been modified as per the demands of various challenges during the course of the production.”

chaitra.shetty@animationxpress.com