Animation has potential in Vidarbha: Kulkarni

Ashish Kulkarni is not new to the orange city. He was born and brought up here, and even held many posts in city-based and multi-national
companies. However, on Sunday, he was here as the chief executive officer of Big Animation, and was conducting a seminar on animation as part of International Film Festival in Nagpur (IFFN).

Speaking on animation and development of the industry in Nagpur and Vidarbha, Kulkarni told TOI, "There is already a strong network of 500 to 700 dedicated multimedia and animation artists in the region with a huge participation from Amravati. The industry has just made itself known in Nagpur for three to four years now, and we need a critical mass of at least 3,000 such artists to set the ball rolling here."

He said that the industry would not take much time to take off in the city. "Nagpur is going through the 'grooming' process. I make sure that I visit here regularly. The moment we feel that the time is ripe to harvest Vidarbha for its talent, we will move in at the earliest. That was why when we decided to sponsor the short film contest of IFFN. I also suggested that we hold a seminar so that the people in Nagpur get to see the work we do behind the scenes, and learn to appreciate it," he said.

And what exactly is it that he expects people to learn about animation? "There are three aspects to making an animation film or becoming an animator. For one, the person has to have an artistic foundation wherein he or she must be able to have an innate sense of art. The second is the story-telling foundation where the person must have the ability to tell a story so as to engage the audience. The third is the film-making ability, which is to translate the story on film," Kulkarni added.

However, this is apparently not all. The very first animation venture of Big Animation, a television serial on the childhood capers of Lord Krishna, is an instant hit, and not without reason! "We spent nearly seven and a half years doing research on the life and times of Lord Krishna. We found more than 300 clear stories of his childhood and narrowed it down a bit. Then, we zeroed in on the 27 special incidents in his childhood which could be translated on screen through animation," he said.

Nonetheless, the most startling discovery among all this was not the stories, neither any of the artists. Kulkarni said, "We were astonished beyond wits to find that all the locations, mentioned in the stories of Lord Krishna which we were to televise later, existed in real life!."

Coming back to the IFFN, he adds, "This is the first international film festival in Nagpur, and the things are rolling pretty well. The open forums, one of which I participated in, actually brings us closer to those very people who have appreciated our work, but have no idea as to who have worked behind the films."