TRIPURA at IAD celebrations in Pune! Indore! & Hyderabad!

Sunday was a day of great happiness!! Apart from just the joy of sharing the process behind TRIPURA, we made many new friends, met many souls who got goose pimples seeing the great Lord Shiva transform into Pashupati!!!, met great artists from around the world, WON the ASIFA India Award of Excellence "Special Jury Mention" and had a great dinner with friends at Leopolds after a very very long time!!!
Thanks Vani, Prasad, Amit & all at ASIFA India! They are really gracious and kind and so sincere its almost unbelievable!
Cheers!!

Now on to an exciting adventure to Pune, Indore & Hyderabad!! Really looking forward to conveying the grace and energy behind a project which was born from our roots, heritage & pop culture and within the conditions of Indian animation.
 It really fills us up with that energy! even as I write this! Its all grace!

TRIPURA at International Animation Day celebrations at NCPA, Sunday 6th nov!!

Its animation celebration time of the year again!!
This year the lineup of sessions at the ASIFA India organised International Animation Day celebrations (IAD 2011 from 6th-13th November) is very exciting!
Presentations include the making of 'Despicable Me", ' Disney's Tangled', Virtual Cinematography for Animation' and ...hold your breath...Animagic's TRIPURA!!!

After the exciting response to the presentation in Anifest (August), we are really kicked about IAD coz we will share this amazing journey with our animation friends not just in Mumbai but Pune (9th nov), Indore (11th nov) and Hyderabad (13th nov) as well!! And on the menu will be a behind the scenes look at creating an animated film- concept art, character design, storyboard, color art and the voice recording sessions! All the original, homegrown, all natural ingredients for the mythological epic! Do come!!!

TRIPURA's journey has been a special experience for me and all at Animagic. To share our discoveries and the process which opened up new worlds for us is really special. I sincerely thank the organisers and animation lovers of the various sessions in Delhi, Indore, Kolkata, Pune and ofcourse aapli Mumbai for their support and enthusiasm to Animagic & TRIPURA.



I wish to invite the visitors to this blog to this event and our session day after or at the other venues this coming week.

Om Namah Shivaya!


ASIFA India hosts the International Animation Day (28th October) celebrations in India every year. The event has been growing steadily since its first edition in 2002 and now involves day long festivities in several cities over the period of a week. This includes workshops and activites for young talent as well a series screenings of films and sessions by film-makers and animators! There is also the ASIFA India award of Excellence, amongst the first instituted in the country by the animation community! Go to http://www.asifa.in/iad11  for more details!!

Animagic's association with this event goes way back, we won the first ever Award of Excellence for 'Raju & I' and have supported the event wholeheartedly! Besides serving on the jury often,we conducted ' Drawing for Animation workshops' regularly in the Mumbai event which were met with much enthusiasm.

ANIMAGIC WINS FICCI BAF Award for TRIPURA!!!

   Tripura has won at the first competition it has been entered into!!
The FICCI Frames convention is an annual international event in Mumbai addressing diverse media concerns. The BAF awards were instituted in 2004 to honour excellence in Animation. 
Raju & I was a winner at the very first awards as the Best short film! Chakachak was nominated the next year. Maaaa was never entered becoz of some random cfsi diktats!!
Tripura, the fourth offering from Animagic and its first feature (as regulars already know) was awarded yesterday at a glittering event as the Best Feature Film Direct to DVD!! 






Mark Eyers, Chief Content Officer, Turner Entertainment Networks, Asia Pacific, was present on the occasion. He was very happy for us and promised petitioning friends from the industry that CN would certainly be airing Tripura soon!!! This time I hope more people will get to watch it!!!

I am so thankful to FICCI and the jury for selecting our picture and validating our efforts at creating what we believed in!! And I cant thanks my special Animagicians enough... once again! Love ya all!!

And group hug to ACK, Turner and Inspidea for letting us dream and supporting us in the best way they knew.

It was tough but it was worth it.

As I told a dear friend recently, even a little validation goes a long way!!

Btw the other nominees in our category were two films also associated with Turner. Turner, Asia had entered a film produced entirely in Malaysia, (Inspidea again! Those guys are just too fast!) called Arjuna and the adventure of the Ice Lotus and Cartoon Network Studios, US had entered Firebreather an all CGI feature directed by one of my heroes Peter Chung (Aeon Flux, Animatrix)!!! However Tripura was entered by Animagic...  


Here's looking forward to many more such exciting moments with Tripura!!

"A ghost who draws..."

Below is an illustration for ASIFA India's International Animation Day (IAD) celebrations.. featuring the mascots we designed, in a special tribute to the legendary 'Phantom' comics we grew up with!!! One of my more fruitful preoccupations these last few months.. more to come soon!!

The Phantom rocks!!!

....and so does the jungle tom-tom insta-messaging service!!!!

For the proper context and its details (lovingly put in a comic cover format by the gang at ASIFA) : http://www.asifaindia.com/

While I have often felt like sharing a lot thru these last many months as work on Tripura gradually wound up, I found myself (uncharacteristically) at a loss for words..

This may have been due to several reasons: the befuddling amount of work itself... the nature of that enterprise which is still a continuing struggle to realise the project's full potential..( all brethren that strongly experience 'art vs commerce' conflicts will understand)... the madness of overcommitment of both self and studio towards an ideal.. the resultant financial catastrophes..

the consequent dance for survival... the rabid debates and moral conflicts.. loss of family (team) members.. grim determinations... solemn oaths.. and more work!!

I wonder if the above is a description of the past or the present..?