After entertaining Indian audiences with films on super heroes, the animation industry is now having a take on more serious stuff. So, it will not merely be the epics, Ramayana or Mahabharata, that will make interesting viewing for children, but Vasco Da Gama and a team of British traders from the East India Company would sail across the graphic sea to greet Indian kings, Tipu Sultan will brandish his sword and fight the British army and Mahatma Gandhi will lead a Dandi march?all in a 3D animated hyper-realistic film on freedom struggle.
Work has already begun on the first part of 2-hour-and-20-minute animation film Honour and Country and it will be released in a year?s time. The film would be the first production from Raksha Group, founded by an architect couple Rajesh and Shalini Kumar, and is being produced by its subsidiary Morphosys Information Services Private Ltd. In the pre-production stage, three professors of the Bangalore University worked for three months with Morphosys, studying Indian history and the country?s first war of Independence in 1857, Shalini said. Currently, a 40 member-team across its Bangalore and Pune offices are working on the film.
?Our aim was to see that August 15 does not remain just another day for the Indian youth. The series would narrate to completion, India?s lengthy struggle for independence across 300 generations,? she said.
According to Morphosys, the film could be of use in educational institutions to complement textbook studies. ?We feel that very few people have time to read text books these days.
A film can tell the story more effectively and in a memorable and interesting manner,? Shalini said.
Raksha planned to make more animation projects and gaming projects in the future.
Indian animation sector was slated to touch revenues of $869 million by 2010 and has witnessed increased outsourcing by global production houses such as Walt Disney, Imax and Sony in recent years.