Aura Cinematics has been on a celebration spree ever since its 52 minute animated movie, ‘Sound of Joy’ managed to collect a lot of accolades including a national award as well. Sukankan Roy’s movie which was inspired by Swami Vivekananda bagged the national award in the categories of the best animation film, best animator and best direction in March this year.
While speaking to AnimationXpress.com exclusively, Sukankan Roy, director of the film and co-founder of Aura Cinematics expressed his pleasure, “The first feeling was that, wow, ‘He did it again’. Swami Vivekananda always had this preternatural way of winning glory all through his life. The second feeling of comfort came in with the citation of the jury panel. Well then, we were close to our objective, the story reached the audience. I have a very traditional way of thinking when it comes to children’s content. I believe content for this space should be tested by appropriate entities before placing on the kid’s platter. For me, the National Award was just a recognition or approval of the film. Now that we know that a panel of fertile brains have approved the content for children, we can look forward to achieving further success. Yes, what I mean is we will not achieve real success until we can reach every kid in this country with the content and the philosophy.”
This movie was conceptualised by Aura Cinematics, a Kolkata based animation studio catering to the national and international market, which for five years was dedicated to make Sound of Joy as a tribute to Swami Vivekananda on his 150th birth Anniversary last year and was also financially assisted by the Ministry of Culture and presented by Ramakrishna Mission, Belur.
‘Sound of Joy’, that also bagged the Best Animated Film Award at Nashik International Film Festival (NIFF), is all set to make its way onto a whole new sphere. Following the lines of the phrase ‘Books are a man’s best friend’, Aura Cinematics is launching its highly acclaimed movie into the comic format under the same brand name for youngsters. Roy explained, “The comic book series is just a step forward to the whole idea. Since ‘Sound of Joy’ was conceived as a movement; the film was just the first step forward. The movement was aimed at catering to childhood in general. We are moving towards other areas of offerings to childhood. This will range from comic books, activity books, interactive activities both digital and physical, TV series, play grounds, toys and games; even cultural activity centres to theme parks in future. Only thing is all these elements will have a single focus of nurturing childhood and imbibing self belief within the children.”
He also added that they primarily aimed at feeding the children with the magical truth. “The kids have been exposed to exciting fiction for long and my perception is that, the influence of facts would be more lasting than fiction. The simple way forward to this idea was to give them a taste of Super Humans who really walked the earth. They have an over dose of fictional Super Heroes. We have already got a taste of the Big Idea being accepted by the society in form of the film Sound of Joy,” he stated.
Roy also mentioned that apart from Swami Vivekananda, they have many more stories of icons from every corner of this country and would definitely let the cat out of the bag when the time is right.
Unlike the making of the movie which required Aura cinematics to rope in 250 artists, the comical format of ‘Sound of Joy’ – that shall cater to the kids between 5-11 years of age – has been a team effort of 6 people. The team comprises of Avishek Sarkar, the former writer of the film, along with Shamik Dasgupta and Karina Daruwala while in the art department is spear headed by Asit Das and Rishi Sahany, who were also the creative leads of the film along with Jazyl Homazavir, a young comic artist from Mumbai.
Giving a few more tit-bits, Roy also informed that they are also in talks with few top line comic artists from India and abroad who would be seen working on the series from the next month onwards.
The film was also nominated for FICCI Frames Best Animated Frames Awards’ 14 in DVD Feature Indian Category. While stressing on concentration, it tells the story of modern day kids, struggling with their aspirations and expectations and how they get inspired by stories of Biley (Childhood name of Swami Vivekananda). Biley, also was as naughty and spirited as any kid of these days during his childhood and these stories of Swami Vivekananda help and motivate the children to fight any crisis or difficult situations.
‘Sound of Joy’ would be a monthly comic book and is all set to be launched in September, next month. For the ones who cannot wait till the next month to explore the comic, the good news is, the movie turned comic has been made available for viewing on the web as well.
Elaborating more on this new venture, the director of the national award winner movie informed that the 32 pages comic shall also be available in a package including an activity book for children which would be sold in both – print and digital platforms for just Rs 200 and shall initially be released only in India.