20 July,2025 02:10 PM IST | Mumbai | Junisha Dama
A still from Ketan Pal’s Ghughuti ki maala
Khaayla aan kaahi tari" (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 friends.
Of course, it's all just imagination. "The protagonist escapes her life through imagination. While I was writing the story, that's 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 eight-minute short film, it doesn't 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 script," says Renuka Shahane, speaking about her latest Marathi short film, Dhavpatti or Loop Line, its English name. The film's animation was created by Paperboat Design Studios, and it was screened at The New York Indian Film Festival 2025 on June 21.
A still from Loop Line
Dhavpatti is Shahane's first animated directorial. Shahane admits that she originally thought the film could swing between animation and live-action, 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 animation.
Speaking of her experience, she says many things were new and describes the pre-visualisation process, which is common to films, but distinctly different in animation. "We 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 on," she says, adding that nothing can be sped up. "The shadows, lighting are all added digitally, but they are done manually. It's labour and time-intensive."
A still from Heirloom
Shahane's film, though animated, is made for adults. It breaks the notion that this form is meant for children's stories, allowing viewers to enjoy her protagonist's escapes from reality. It's 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, there's 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 others.
Among other seasoned animators, Mumbai-based Studio Eeksaurus, founded by Suresh and Nilima Eriyat, is trying to fill the gap in adult-oriented animation. Producing several short films for all ages, the studio has garnered ample accolades for its work. Ten 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 Oscar.
Renuka Shahane and Suresh Eriyat
When we ask founder and creative director Suresh Eriyat about the lack of adult-oriented animated films, he says, "There's 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 stop-motion projects before. There are a lot of challenges, even though our studio has been around for 20 years. Animation is seen as a service-based work, not something to create with."
The perception around animation in India stops at storytelling for kids, and rarely does it go forward. Shahane's film is a change in that direction, and she's not alone. Bengaluru-based animated film director Ketan Pal says he's sworn to not make animated content geared only for kids. "There's a wide perception that animation is just for kids. The Indian audience is not prepared to accept Indian animation, even though there's enough content from India out there to watch."
Shahane thinks, "The 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 of."
Upamanyu Bhattacharyya and Ketan Pal
Eriyat 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. "I think they didn't 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 different," he says.
Kolkata-based 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. "We were able to tour and sell tickets to an overwhelming degree for Wade and three other adult-oriented short films in 2019, which gave me a lot of hope for long format projects, if marketed correctly," he says.
Pal agrees that marketing in animation is poor. "It's why producers find it tough to invest in projects unless it's 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 it," he says.
Bhattacharyya says that film funding can be complex, "It 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 easier." Filmmakers too are unaware of financing models, he adds. "They can explore grants, labs, development funds, residencies, and more to give the project the critical mass it needs for investability."
Shahane, who has self-funded 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. "I made this film with the knowledge that I'm not going to get any money back," she says.
Amit Bharadwaj, studio head at the Pune-based studio Philm CGI, believes that better content could change the game. "We grew up watching Cartoon Network shows like Ed, Edd n Eddy or Dexter's Laboratory. That's 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 people," he says.
Is there hope for Indian animation? Eriyat says, "It's my dream to make local content more visible and to create a market for it in India," adding that he hopes for better distribution of animated films. "We also need to figure out a way to make people pay for this content. Platforms like YouTube do not help our system," he says.
Big wins for Indian animation
Desi Oon: This award-winning film is a stop-motion 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 India.
Wade: 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 Festival
Heirloom: It shows a family's 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) 2024.
Tokri: A stop-motion short made in 2017 by Studio Eekasaurus won the National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Animation Film that year.
Super Sidhu: Ketan Pal's independent project animates Navjyot Singh Sidhu's comedic cricket commentary, and the seven-part series has gone on to garner 50 million views.
