Be it keeping on drawing circles, ovals and free lines to loosen one’s hand or understanding material science to improve production values; Be it knowing all the rules so to be able to break them at will or overcoming the challenges of a production pipeline, Anifest India 2006 which was held over the last weekend in Mumbai was a platform where professionals and masters of their craft drew from their vast experience and shared pearls of wisdom with the highly receptive audience.
The largest Indian animation event so far, Anifest India 2006 was organised by TASI and ASIFA India and was held on 29-30 April in Mumbai.
Besides the workshops which constituted a major part of the event, the festival also included celebrations in the form of a panel session, the TASI VCA Awards, screening of Gitanjali Rao’s Printed Rainbow and the Rock concert (indoor) by VAYU.
Some of the world’s most renowned animation professionals shared the stage with some of India’s animation maestros.
PDI co founder Richard Chaung, Dream Works Animation’s Rex Grigon and Mahesh Ramasubramanian, Rhythm & Hues Bill Kroyer & Juck Samsoman, Indian animation maestros, experts and mentors like Ajit Rao, Chetan Sharma, Vaibhav Kumaresh, Dhimant Vyas, Yunus Bukhari, Uttam Chawla, Virendra, Sekhar Mukherjee, Shilpa Ranade, Dennis Deegan… they were all there and while a few of these took workshops all of these stalwarts were accessible to those that attended, regardless of whether they were students, budding artists or experienced professionals.
With events such as these which give an equal platform to anyone who wishes to benefit, one can be sure that there are real good times ahead for Indian animation!
The audience interactions during the masterclasses revealed that quite a few students, most of whom were directly oriented in 3D animation were interested in knowing more about classical 2D animation as well as Stop Motion.
Animation keeda or following one’s animation instincts was the high point at the panel session. Uttam Chawla widely known for his Santa Banta characters urged all panelists and fellow animators by saying,”What needs to be done to uplift Indian animation is to follow one’s animation keeda (bug). It is a great feeling to create original content and get immediate audience feedback. I believe that original content that is whacky and humorous will always find an audience in the youth”
The panel session which was part of the evening festivities on Day 2 was moderated by Jai Natarajan and comprised of NID’s Sekhar Mukherjee, IDC’s Shilpa Ranade, XIC’s Jehangir Mistry & RTG Animate’s Dennis Deegan, Future THought’s Carl Caste, Independent Animation film maker Uttam Chawla and Maximus’ student Michael Allan.
We need to be driven enough to want to tell our stories: IDC’s Prof Shilpa Ranade
“Earlier it was a tough ordeal to make one’s own short film in terms of finding the funds to do so, but today the youth have acess to digital technology and the cost of making one’s own films is much lesser and in that sense there is the liberty. But what is needed is the drive to want to tell one’s stories without worrying wether they fit in” said IDC’s Prof. Shilpa Ranade
Dennis Deegan emphasised on the need to take pride in one’s work as a crucial factor that was required in Indian animation. “Many of my students worked on outsourced projects and quite a few of them have quit their jobs and are worrking on their own content now” he said.
“While working and as students most Indian artists just do what they are told to. They never try to get underneath a certain concept and technicality and try to question it and understand it in detail” remarked Carl Caste.
The open mike forum at the end of the session had quite a few interesting questions and points being raised. Amongst them being the need for funds and resources to help artists create their own short films as well as the need for the community to interact more frequently. “Film Clubs, Library, more festivals like Anifest these are some of the things we need” was the gist of what the voices from the audiences demanded.
Vox Populi: Audience votes for Khintikiri Pinta, Crime Time:The Bank Robbery
The session was followed by the TASI VCA Awards and the student’s nominations were dominated by NID followed by MAAC, Zica and a few International Schools. The films had varying styles and stories and quite a few of them were really impressive especially Ark by NID student Aswini Kumar Satapathy, Swoosh by NID’s Ranveer Singh, I forgot Something by MAAC South Delhi team, Canvas by Divyesh Lad and Khintikiri Pinta by NID’s Pushan Chakravarty. Khintikiri Pinta emerged the winner.
The professional category at TASI VCA had seven nominees and all of the films were impressive. Be it Nina Sabnani’s Mukand & Riaz which was based on real life events and animated with cloth or be it Anirights The Bad Egg which featured a great amount of flash animation which resembled 3D and rich texturing. Sameer Kulavoor’s The Whale Film and Rohit Watsa and Dhimant Vyas’ The Carrots and the Pea were extremely witty and hilarious concepts executed with elan. Santosh Sawant’s Crime Time:The Bank Robbery was exemplrary in terms of the very impressive and stylistic animation as well as slickly edited story telling. The short which is produced by Jai Zaveri (Future Thought) got the audience approval at TASI VCA.
Gitanjali Rao’s Printed Rainbow had the audience spell bound. The film was recently converted to 35mm and is going to Cannes, Annecy and Zaghreb.
There is definitely something about animators and rock n roll. As soon as Vayu got on stage, lead vocalist 2Blue and Guitarist Ravi Iyer took over. The CG and animation artists got wild and into a headbanging spree. As the evening matured, animation director Suhail Merchant who is a lead vocalist himself was urged by friends and former colleagues and did he add to the frenzy?
The young animation artists as well as seniors like Tilak Shetty, Munjal Shroff, Gitanjali Rao, Shrirang Sathaye, Saraswathi Balgam, Ajit Rao, Aadesh all joined in the wild headbanging frenzy…..
Anifest India 2006 was a one of its kind, a memorable and landmark event in the history of Indian animation and to sum up in a collective voice the feedback on Anifest India that most of the artists and students shared with Animation ‘xpress,
“Yeh Dil Mange More!”