No more child’s play: The changing face of Indian animated films

Khaayla aan kaahi tarirdquo Bring something to eat snaps the husband His wife the protagonist slices away her brain in the kitchen to cook it and feed her husband and his friendsOf course itrsquos all just imagination ldquoThe protagonist escapes her life through imagination While I was writing the story thatrsquos when I started imagining those escape points as animation At first I was toying with the idea of combining animation and live action But for an eightminute short film it doesnrsquot get enough time The next step was to imagine it completely in animation And that somehow fit completely with the way I had written the scriptrdquo says Renuka Shahane speaking about her latest Marathi short film Dhavpatti or Loop Line its English name The filmrsquos animation was created by Paperboat Design Studios and it was screened at The New York Indian Film Festival 2025 on June 21A still from Loop LineDhavpatti is Shahanersquos first animated directorial Shahane admits that she originally thought the film could swing between animation and liveaction but decided against it Eight minutes would not be enough time for the audience to get used to watching a combination of two forms So she decided to step out of her comfort zone and into the realm of animationSpeaking of her experience she says many things were new and describes the previsualisation process which is common to films but distinctly different in animation ldquoWe had our actors Mitalee Jagtap Varadkar and Anand Alkunte play the parts and it was filmed with very few props in bright light because every expression and body movement needed to be very clear for the animators to base their animation onrdquo she says adding that nothing can be sped up ldquoThe shadows lighting are all added digitally but they are done manually Itrsquos labour and timeintensiverdquoA still from HeirloomShahanersquos film though animated is made for adults It breaks the notion that this form is meant for childrenrsquos stories allowing viewers to enjoy her protagonistrsquos escapes from realityItrsquos rare to find animated content geared towards adults The West has created iconic series like The Simpsons South Park Bojack Horseman Rick and Morty among others Then of course therersquos Japanese anime which attracts all ages starting from teens to millennials While in India we have clung to Chhota Bheem Motu Patlu Little Krishna Mighty Raju Pandavas 5 among othersAmong other seasoned animators Mumbaibased Studio Eeksaurus founded by Suresh and NilimaEriyat is trying to fill the gap in adultoriented animation Producing several short films for all ages the studio has garnered ample accolades for its workTen years after their first award on the same stage their film Desi Oon won the Jury Award for Best Commissioned Film at the Annecy International Animation Festival 2024 The award in the animation film industry is equivalent to winning an OscarRenuka Shahane and Suresh EriyatWhen we ask founder and creative director Suresh Eriyat about the lack of adultoriented animated films he says ldquoTherersquos sheer ignorance around the amount of work that goes into making an animated film While shooting Desi Oon we had to create two to three sets within our studio and shoot them simultaneously or it would have taken over a year to complete The equipment rental is expensive because we need it for months and film crews have not worked on stopmotion projects before There are a lot of challenges even though our studio has been around for 20 years Animation is seen as a servicebased work not something to create withrdquoThe perception around animation in India stops at storytelling for kids and rarely does it go forward Shahanersquos film is a change in that direction and shersquos not alone Bengalurubased animated film director Ketan Pal says hersquos sworn to not make animated content geared only for kids ldquoTherersquos a wide perception that animation is just for kids The Indian audience is not prepared to accept Indian animation even though therersquos enough content from India out there to watchrdquoShahane thinks ldquoThe perception barrier can be broken pretty easily because we are used to adjusting to so many different mediums Now we are talking about vertical films which was unheard ofrdquoUpamanyu Bhattacharyya and Ketan PalEriyat says that the 2008 Hindi animated feature film Roadside Romeo could have paved the way for more films but it flopped so producers decided there was a lack of audience ldquoI think they didnrsquot bring the right people to make the film It was looked at as an extension of a Hindi feature film But the way you approach animated stories is differentrdquo he saysKolkatabased animation film director Upamanyu Bhattacharyya has directed films like Wade and Heirloom which have been made for adults He believes that the audience is ready ldquoWe were able to tour and sell tickets to an overwhelming degree for Wade and three other adultoriented short films in 2019 which gave me a lot of hope for long format projects if marketed correctlyrdquo he saysPal agrees that marketing in animation is poor ldquoItrsquos why producers find it tough to invest in projects unless itrsquos a guaranteed hit My series with Navjyot Singh Sidhu got a sponsor only after a couple of episodes were a hit and because of the celebrity name attached to itrdquo he saysBhattacharyya says that film funding can be complex ldquoIt has to make sense for the investor We need a lot more creators to fight this initial fight to get their stories off the ground which will make future projects a lot easierrdquoFilmmakers too are unaware of financing models he adds ldquoThey can explore grants labs development funds residencies and more to give the project the critical mass it needs for investabilityrdquoShahane who has selffunded her film says that short films are anyhow rarely seen by the general public So an animated short with mature content is not going to find a producer or distributor ldquoI made this film with the knowledge that Irsquom not going to get any money backrdquo she saysAmit Bharadwaj studio head at the Punebased studio Philm CGI believes that better content could change the game ldquoWe grew up watching Cartoon Network shows like Ed Edd n Eddy or Dexterrsquos Laboratory Thatrsquos the benchmark for us Nowadays kids watch Chhota Bheem and other such shows You need good content from the beginning so that the right investment reaches the right peoplerdquo he saysIs there hope for Indian animation Eriyat says ldquoItrsquos my dream to make local content more visible and to create a market for it in Indiardquo adding that he hopes for better distribution of animated films ldquoWe also need to figure out a way to make people pay for this content Platforms like YouTube do not help our systemrdquo he saysBig wins for Indian animationDesi Oon This awardwinning film is a stopmotion short made in collaboration with the Centre for Pastoralism Everything in the film is crafted with Deccani sheep wool by young animators at Studio Eekasaurus and the film is an ode to the fibre and the shepherds of IndiaWade A story of climate change crises created by Ghost Animation It won the City of Annecy Award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and the Satoshi Kon Award for Best Animated Short at the Fantasia International Film FestivalHeirloom It shows a familyrsquos struggle as handlooms give way to textile mills set in the Ahmedabad of the 1960s It won two awards at the Hong Kong International Film Festival HKIFF 2024Tokri A stopmotion short made in 2017 by Studio Eekasaurus won the National Film Award for Best NonFeature Animation Film that yearSuper Sidhu Ketan Palrsquos independent project animates Navjyot Singh Sidhursquos comedic cricket commentary and the sevenpart series has gone on to garner 50 million views