Simplifying epics and legends

From the story of Ambas Ruin and a brief outline of Shikhandis life to why the Mahabharata and the Ramayana should be read together and the origin of temples in India to the story of Pharoah Akhenaten the ruler who gave birth to monotheism and changed the face of religion in the modern world some of the wellknown and littleknown myths and legends from around the world are making their way into YouTube in the form of simple whiteboard sketchesSameer Pitalwalla CEO and Cofounder Culture Machine Digital Video Entertainment CompanyWe caught up with Sameer Pitalwalla CEO and Cofounder Culture Machine Digital Video Entertainment Company mdash a YouTubebased multichannel Network mdash who has come up with this YouTube series aptly named EpifiedExcerpts from the interviewQ What is epifiedA Epified is an online video channel that seeks to transform ideas taken from Indian mythologies into online content in the form of whiteboard animation which are converted into YouTube videos We write direct and produce our own content There is a large body of cultural knowledge that does not find its way to todays Internet generation If it does it is either too obscure or too boring or too simplistic What we are aiming for is to build a place where high concepts and great mythological stories are put across in a simple yet effective way We are trying to marry simplicity with substanceQ How did you come up with the conceptA We always wanted to work on mythology Most of the material we have in this genre right now is either too devotional or too actionadventure oriented We wanted to focus more on the life lessons these stories impart We brought on board mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik as a guide and advisor and to direct the initiative and collaborated with comic book writer Vijayendra Mohanty forthe text while most of the artwork is done by this young artist Girish MalapThis Epified story depicts how the Egyptians who lived a heavily ritualised life which included building pyramids and mummifying the dead ensured that the dead passed on from the world of Horus to the world of OsirisQ Why did you chose whiteboard animationA We at Epified believe that the message is the most important part and the vessel that contains the message should not get in the way of accessing the message If it does it defeats the purpose Whiteboard animation makes for an unobtrusive way of conveying a message or telling a story We want our way of communication to be as lucid as the messages we put outQ How do you pick the stories What are the texts you are working onA As far as selecting stories is concerned we try to strike a balance between the wellknown ones and the relatively unknownWe have an already established Mahabharata series running on Epified In the near future we intend to explore the Mahabharata more deeply with miniseries on some of the more important individual characters In addition we are already at work on adaptingexploring other texts and mythological storiesQ Take us through the processA First we zero in on an idea that needs to be expressed Then we research on it and script it out in the simplest possible way that will best suit the medium We distill the epics into their simplest and most mainstream version This is achieved by reading the books that are already out there Video Entertainment Company mdash the many retellings of the epics the various interpretations of mythology After we have the skeleton in place we explore aspects of the epics using spinoffs and short characterdeity profiles We also adapt alreadyexisting works like books and essays by Pattanaik whose work on mythology has brought an entire generation of Indians closer to their cultural heritageQ How did the collaboration with Devdutt Pattanaik happenA We approached Pattanaik to be a guide for the project and he agreed In addition to the regular programming on Epified we are also converting Pattanaiks books into a brand new Video Book format It is something that has not been done before and we are really excited about itQ Whats nextA Culture Machine is primarily a YouTube based multichannel network So naturally a YouTube channel was the first thing to come up But Epified has a sizable following on Facebook and even more platforms are being added to the menu even as we speakWe want to keep an open mind regarding what Epified can become in the future There is much in mythology that has not been said and we intend to say those things But we are hoping to expand our boundaries to literature and other topics of universal intrigue We are also planning to translate existing texts of other wellknown Indian authors into video books