Currently only 5-6 per cent of the total budget is being spent on voice overs in animation films. Mahesh Manjarekar has done his first voice over for Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang. The normal trend in a live action movie is to dub after the shooting is over ensuring lip sync. However, in animation voices come into play right after screenplay is done. In animation both the characters and objects talk and emote. Trained actors and professionals emote better and are increasingly used as voice overs, e.g. Shatughna Sinha was roped in as the narrator for the film Dashavatar. As the actors are matched to the scripts here voices are matched to the story. In Alibaba, John Abraham’s voice has been used. Theatre artistes are also used as voice overs. The late Sadashiv Amrapurkar had given his voice as one of the heads of Ravana in Mahayodha Ram. As voice recording is the first step in animation movie which take a long production time, actors have to wait for years before they see the characters and their performances on screen.

DC Comics have begun to sell its superheroes digitally along with simultaneous print run. Slave Labour Graphics would offer its periodicals only in digital format. The reach becomes wider. It makes sense financially saving print costs. iVerse Media and the Archie crew collaborated to bring Archie into digital world in 2008. Between comics available for free and those purchased, Archie is closing in on three million downloads.

Marathi cartooning was started in Kirloskar magazine by S V Kirloskar in 1925.It thus has a history of 90 years. Marathi cartooning came of age in 1950. In the last six decades, many Marathi cartoonists have handled this medium. One name that contributed a lot to Marathi cartooning is that of Sarvottam Sarwate. His select cartoons have been published in the book form by Lokvangmay Griha Prakashan. The book was launched by senior cartoonist S D Phadnis. It has been edited by Awadhoot Paralkar. Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray worked as a cartoonist with the Free Press Journal. His cartoons were the main attraction of the Marmik magazine.His nephew Raj Thackeray is also a good cartoonist. In Maharashtra, we have cartoonists like S D Phadnis, Vasant Sarawate, Madhukar Dharmapurikar and Abhimanyu Kulkarni.

The Adventures of Tintin — The Secret of the Unicorn directed by Steven Spielberg hit the cinema halls in Delhi in 2011. It sparked off the renewed interest in the 24-book series created by Herge. Two movies have already been made on Tintin — Tintin and the Golden Fleece and Tintin and the Blue Oranges. The characters in Tintin series are Tintin, the pug-nosed reporter; Snowy, his constant companion dog; Captain Haddock, Tintin’s closest friend and Professor Calculus, the deaf absent-minded inventor and creator of pioneering moon-rocket.

Tom & Jerry This is never ending rivalry between a housecat and a mouse. It represents an eternal battle between the good and not so good.

The Simpsons Its a typical American family consisting of Homer, Bart, Marge, Lisa and Maggie.

The Jungle Book This is Disney’s 1967 animated film version of Rudyard Kipling’s classic tale.

He-man Most powerful man in the universe.

South Park These are the adventures of four boys and their friends in the small town of South Park in Colarado.

Everyone remembers the animation film on national integration Ek Anek on DD in the 1970s and 1980s. It was made by Bhimsain Khurana. He studied fine arts in Lucknow and joined Films Division of India in Mumbai. He is the pioneer in animation in the country.

This is the oldest comic store in the world. It is a shop people visit to reclaim the child in them. It was founded by Kees  Kousemaker in 1968 and was named after Lambik, a popular character from Suske and Wiske comics. The earliest customers were those who could not lay their hands on comics due to parental supervision. Slowly a new comic buying audience too emerged. One who runs such a store must have encyclopedic knowledge and an elephantine memory. Kousemaker passed away in 2010 and his son continues his legacy.

There are several specialisations in animation — 2D, 3D, character animation, sketching, modelling, rigging and so on. The coming years will see a big demand for character animators. Many 2D artists may cross ever to character animation because their expertise in 2D helps them understand character animation better. There are different shapes in animation — modeling, rigging, texturing, lighting and finally character animation. For example, rigging is like creating bones for a character, and to be good at rigging you need to know some nuances of anatomy too. A character animator knows a bit of rigging so that he can guide a rigging artist about the desired action and structure.

Anant Pai was a double graduate in chemical technology from Mumbai University.  He worked with the Times of India in mid-1960s.He was with the Books Division which published Indrajal comics. He was spurred to create the mythological comics after watching a TV quiz show in which young participants answered quisions about Greek mythology with ease, but could not answer when asked about the name of Lord Rama’s mother.

Pai launched ACK series in 1967, with publisher G.L. Mirchandani, IBH. The first books were called Illustrated Classics. The name Amar Chitra Katha starts with number 11. It has sold more than 100 million copies of about 440 titles in 38 languages.

He led a band of loyal illustrators like Ram Wareekar, Dilip Kadam, Sanjeev Wareekar,  Souren Roy, Pratap Malick, P. B. Kavadi, Yousuf Lien and Jeffery Fowler. He stayed at Shivalik Apartment, Prabhadevi, Mumbai.

He was given the first Annual Indian Indian Comic Convention ( Comi Con ) Life Time Achievement Award in February, 2011. He is survived by his wife Lalita. The Pais were childless.

To begin with Pai scripted his comics and used to get them scripted by Pradeep Pau and Yagya Sharma.

He sought the advice of Moti Chandra, the then curator of Prince of Wales Museum regarding costumes and architecture.

Govind Kotwani was employed to assist him. His team of Dennis Olivia, Subba Rao and Nira Benegal for Tinkle magazine too assisted him.

Kamla Chandrakant, a youn woman was employed to assist the scripting work. The other script writers included Gayatri Mada Dutt, Toni Patel, Rajendra Sanjay, Bharati Vyas, Debrani Mitra and Luis Fernandes.

The younger artists Vasant Halbe, Harishchandra Chavan, M V Nangare, G R Naik, Dilip Kadam and Pradeep Sathe joined the team.

The ACK comics were edited a number of times, and finally got okayed by Pai.

Though ACK comics were popular, they were at times politically incorrect. The heroes were always fair or blue-bodied. The villains of other communities were shown in bad light. Such prejudices do not take away the credit of good work done by Pai. After all, he was a product of his times.Othe comics elsewhere were also prejudiced. Tintin comics were showing Africans and Arabs in bad light. ( See Tintin in Tibet, Cigars of the Pharaoh ). Enid Blyton’s stories were accused of subtle racism, and were frowned upon in the UK.

While reissuing the ACK comics, the editors can make these comics free of the biases.The publication has been taken over by the Future Group of Kishor Biyani in 2011. The publication has recently featured eight legends posthumously. Among them are

• Jim Corbett
• Anant Pai who created Amar Chitra Katha
• Salim Ali, ornithologist
• Verghese Kurien, Amul man
• S Ramanujam, maths wizard
• M S Subbalakshami, classical singer
• Dhyan Chand, hockey legend
• Tenzing Norgay, first Everest conqueror

Amar Chitra Katha has more than 400 comics in over 20 languages and has so far sold 90 million copies. It proposes to do a volume on Sarav Ganguly, first living hero to feature in Amar Chitra Katha.

Lalitha Pai, 76 in 2015, widow of Anant Pai has launched a scholarship in memory of her husband. It is open to children in the age group of 10-15. The applicants will be judged on the basis of multiple-choice questions and an essay. The national winner will be getting a scholarship of Rs 11 lac. They will be choosing seven special metro winners and 71 city winners.

 

 

FD animation were committed to do social education. The importance of family planning was depicted in A Great Problem. The Treaty of Unity emphasised national integration.The Threads shows how to fight terrorism by being unified. The Banyan Tree teaches non-violence. You Said It teaches how the elected representatives are accountable to the voters. Sandesh emphasizes the importance of food. Homosaps  illustrates the evolution of man. Balloon illustrates how rumour spreads. Trip depicts how life is transient. Gokhale created Chaos. Shaila Paralkar is the first woman animator of India. Her contributions are The Saviour, Last Drop, Gandhi through the Eyes of a Cartoonist. The other prize winning entries in the collection of FD are My Tree, Boy or Girl — How?, Suno Bahurani, Don’t Spare Me Shankar. In recent years, Nandkumar Sadamate produced Picasso Metamorphoses and Ravi Jadhav produced Landscape. Sushma Potdar produced A Place in the Sun. Bidai shows the effects of dowry. ABC encourges eye donation. End Game shows the evil of war. Lost Horizon illustrates the ill-effects of urbanization. Education is Her only Future shows how education liberated a woman. She Could Do You Proud fights against female infanticide.

Some other animation films in FD’s collection are Skin in the Bin, Precious Water, Law of Nature,The Thinker , Freedom, Solidarity, Bottled Cannibals, Two Thalis, Kahani Har Zamane Ki , Universal Peace, Kati Patang, Swayamwar. Some of the directors FD animation movies are V. G. Samant ( Hanumaan fame), Ram Mohan, A.R.Sen, G.K.Gokhale and Paramod Pati.