Indian Animation: A bubble that burst too soon?
Written by Aniket Singh Chauhan, freelance journalist by work and traveller by heart. He loves to write about topics ranging from international relations and defence to popular culture and travel.
Drawing from Jambu Kaka, India's first animated theatrical release (Source - Film Division of India)It was on a lazy December afternoon that my plan was finally coming to life. The room was quiet, the snacks were ready and Makoto Shinkai's anime feature Your Name was on. Oh, what a sight it was. But as the pre-credits rolled out to reveal Shinkai's gorgeous Tokyo cityscapes, I couldn't help but wonder how pretty Delhi, Mumbai or Bengaluru would look in an animated avatar. But why don’t they?
A still from Shinkai’s Your Name (2016) showing one of the many glimpses of Tokyo’s gorgeous cityscape. For a lot of Indians, animation starts with manga series like Naruto and Shin Chan (admit it, you still watch it too) while it ends with American animation like Toy Story and Bojack Horseman. Animation from India isn't even a part of this conversation. Indian animation has had a long and (somewhat) illustrious journey through the years. From the cult classic Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama to the forgettable Roadside Romeo, the Indian animation industry has seen illustrious highs and disastrous lows.
Origins
A still from Rangeen Chutkiyaan (Source - Film Division of India)India’s history with animation started not with films but with shadow puppetry. Indian shadow arts like Tholu Bommalata, Chamadyacha Bahulya, etc. were present in the sub-continent since the 3rd century. These art forms showcased folktales and mythological stories to an audience spread around the subcontinent.
This storytelling transformed into the world of cinema with the advent of the 20th century. A host of Indian filmmakers including Dadasaheb Phalke experimented with basic animation shorts. The country saw its first animated theatrical release in the form of Jambu Kaka, animated by Raghunath Kelkar in 1935. By the 1940s, more filmmakers shifted to animation as the industry faced an acute shortage of raw film stock during the second world war.
Bakam Bhatt by Kolapur Cinetoons, Lafanga Langoor (1935) by Mohan Bhavani, Superman's Myth (1939) by G.K. Ghokhle, Akash Pataal (1939) by Mandar Malik, The War That Never Ends by IFI, and Cinema Kadampam (1947) by N. Thanu are some examples of early animated films in India of this era.
Despite these positive developments, Indian animation till the 1990s was limited to non-commercial short films like Rangeen Chutkiyan and government features like Ek, Anek aur Ekta. But the Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation policy of the Indian government was about to turn the fortunes of Indian animation, albeit for a short duration.
The Rise
Bugs Bunny, Shin Chan, Ninja Hattori, Dexter’s Labratory, and The Powerpuff Girls graced Indian television screens in the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s, thanks to the introduction of popular cartoon channels such as The Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Hungama, and Disney. These cartoon shows popularised animation in Indian households while also developing a market for animation in India. The decade saw the formation of many new studios with a desire to promote Indian characters for the market.
The film poster for Ramayana - The Legend of Prince Rama (Source - IMDb)The first significant animation feature to release in the 1990s was Yugo Sako and Ram Mohan’s Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama (whose memes, I am sure, you still see). The film was an Indo-Japanese venture that mixed Indian storytelling with Japanese animation. Based on the Indian epic Ramayana, the film could not be released in India due to various reasons, yet it gained immense popularity via television broadcasts on Cartoon Network. This film inspired a host of other mythology-based animations in the country.
Probably Relevant Side-Note: Yugo Sako was a Japanese Buddhist monk-turned-documentary filmmaker who first came to India in 1983 to shoot a documentary on archaeological findings related to the Indian epic Ramayana. During the process, he became so fascinated by the epic that he decided to make a film on it. And with immense struggle, he finally succeeded in making one after nearly a decade in 1992. When asked about his fascination for Rama’s story, he stated, “Has there ever been a story in which nature, God, man, and animals were so united in sorrow, fighting, and rejoicing together?”
Arjun - The Warrior Prince (Source - IMDb)The next major Indian animation film that made its mark was, Hanuman. The film was produced in 2005 by VG Samanth and showcased the life of Hanuman, the Indian monkey deity. Krishna, My Friend Ganesha, and Ghatotkach followed in the footsteps of Hanuman and created a domination of mythology in the Indian animation space. While a few films like Roadside Romeo and Delhi Safari, deviated from this tendency of utilising religious and mythological characters, most Indian films stuck to these topics. Even Disney forayed into the Indian market with the Mahabharata-based Arjun: The Warrior Prince.
Empty Banks and Deserted Box Offices
Despite producing many films, Indian animation studios could never go beyond a simple retelling of classic epics, let alone develop new characters. This over-dependence on mythology not only restricted character development but also posed threats of social unrest if too much experimentation was tried out with revered deities like Lord Hanuman, Lord Krishna, etc. So, while Japanese animators beautifully intertwined culture with modernity, thereby making their animations suitable for adults and children alike, Indian audiences witnessed only a limited number of stories with little to no innovation.
This trend also affected the market for Indian animation films. Where films like Frozen 2 along with The Incredibles 2 generated profits akin to ₹42.52 crores and ₹41.65 crores respectively, at the Indian box office, Indian animation movies could never get the numbers right.
Probably Relevant Side-Note: That is not to say that there haven’t been any commendable efforts like Bombay Rose (2019), which was a tale of fragile love in the bustling streets of ruthless Mumbai city, and Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya (2013), a musical fantasy film about the love of music.
We need to embrace in our films the idea of developing our own individual styles of animation, perhaps from the multiplicity of current creative forms in our country. Animation provides a platform to tell stories beyond the limitations of live-action films, it doesn’t need to only be about the supernatural but also about our everyday pains and pleasures. While some noteworthy work in the Indian animation space like Wade, Kite, Death of a Father, Tokri, etc. had definitely happened, the hidden potential in this space is beyond this writer’s imagination.
Working together to tell stories with ground-breaking animation and using marketing methods from our beloved Bollywood (and other film industries) is the need of the hour for this passion-driven sector. The Indian animation industry has huge potential, talent and prospects to be the leading power in the animation world. Indian culture has been teaching the world since ancient times. It is full of stories as well as lessons for the world and animation is the bridge that can connect this sea of knowledge to the world in this century. We deserve to lose ourselves in animated Delhi streets and relive the bustling Bengaluru roads on the silver screen.
Probably Relevant Side-Note: Indian studios are a global hub of animation outsourcing, having a 10% of the global market share. They have contributed animation and VFx to some of the biggest franchises including the Life of Pi, The Lion King, Maleficent, Star Wars and more.
For the time being, I will go back to watching Your Name and manifesting my desires for an Indian animation scene as vibrant as our nation - for it is still full of colours, diversity and love.