Bangalore based animation studio Phanimations is producing a 2D animated direct to home feature based on the life of one of the most revered Indian seers of all time, Sri Adi Shankaracharya.
The project has been commissioned by Sri Dakshinamnaya Sharada Peetham, Sringeri.
The 80 minute feature which has three songs as well as five stotras of Sri Adi Shankaracharya is scheduled for an April 2007 release on home video. Credits include Direction / Screen play by Phani Prasanna Kumar, Music by A.Ramachandra Rao, Dialogues & Lyrics by Lakshmi.
A team of eight artists worked for close to four months on the pre production and the project is currently in the production phase.
Speaking to Animation Xpress.com, Phanimations Director Phani Prasanna Kumar remarked,”Transforming a serious subject like Shankaracharya into entertainment content for children is a very challenging task. But we are very convinced about the need for such content because majority of content available for children today is crass and polluted. We need to use these powerful visual media to purify children’s minds and place the seed of real knowledge into their tender minds”
Talking about the look dev and style of the film Phani pointed out, “We have consciously avoided giving a cartoony look to the characters and have attempted to bring out the serenity / sensitivity in the characters by using minimum lines. Even the backgrounds have depth and contrast and are more realistic”
“To get a distinct style we have used a lot of camera, moves, rotations, pans and zooms very elaborately” he added.
In the past 15 months since it began operations, Phanimations has been involved in creating animated political cartoons which it is currently in the process of pitching to news channels. The studio has also developed a pilot episode of an animated comedy series for Television which is based on the Telugu comedian Brahmanandam.