Punyakoti: The inspiring story of India’s first Sanskrit animation film
It was a crazy idea, something no one had attempted before. I was investing a huge amount of money in making this film and most people around me were certain that I would fail miserably,” says Ravi Shankar V, an HR professional from Infosys who is making India’s first Sanskrit animation film.
India has this tendency to lose interest in traditional practices, only to embrace them again after they have toured the world. Sanskrit has also been pushed to the verge of extinction time and again. But Shankar believes that Sanskrit will make a comeback soon, owing to extensive research around the globe that certifies it to be a complete language that improves cognitive skills in children; it uses both the logical and the creative aspects of the human mind.
The film, titled Punyakoti, is based on an excerpt from the Mahabharata that has also been adapted in a Kannada folk song. It narrates the story of a cow who always speaks the truth and is true to her word. So much so that when she is attacked by a tiger, she refuses to be- come his prey because she has promised her kids that she will feed them, after which she goes back to the tiger. “In this age where we are fighting for a corruption-free environment and public responsibility, these ethics from traditional texts sound extremely relevant, which we will possibly lose out on in the next two generations if we lose our connect with Sanskrit,” says Shankar.
Moved upon reading the story, it led Shankar to write a children’s book with the same name, which got published last year. The next step that was a 10-day “Samskrita Sambhashana” workshop, a Sanskrit conversation course conducted by Samskrit Bharati, an organisation promoting Sanskrit for the last 30 years across the world. “I signed up for this workshop. Within 10 days, I could converse in Sanskrit and was confident enough to think about making a movie in this language,” he explains.
Convinced about pursuing this, the first person who Shankar approached was prominent music composer Ilayaraj, who was thoroughly impressed with the idea but had his apprehensions about using Sanskrit as the medium. “He encouraged me to go ahead and promised to compose music for the film for free,” says Shankar.
But as one might imagine, finding a producer for Punyakoti was a Herculean task for two reasons. One, that a full-length animated feature film not only costs a lot, but also doesn’t work in India commercially. The second reason was, of course, the fact that it was in Sanskrit. Shankar understood that it will be a huge task for a studio to make an entire animated film by itself. So he thought of getting multiple animators on board and assigning them parts of the movie, which sounded the most feasible of all his options. “I approached the Senior Vice-President of Arena animation and requested him to give me about 100 animation students who I could use to make the movie. He laughed at the idea and highlighted why Arena never thought of making a movie despite having all the resources. He told me there is no scope for animation in India,” says Shankar who had to battle demoralising statements quite bit. “Someone also told me to just make a two-three minute short film for my satisfaction and upload it on YouTube.”
An absence of producers led Shankar to crowdfunding. Shankar and his team developed a website and Facebook page, which regularly posted details related to the project. They also announced an honorarium of Rs 5,000 for any animator who wanted to be a part of this project. After all the roadblocks, the project finally started gaining traction when he was invited to IIT Mumbai to speak about his idea. The media picked up his story and he began getting affirmative responses. One of these responses came from Singapore, from someone who had been planning to make a movie in Sanskrit for years. He instantly handed out Rs 1 lakh to Shankar, which helped kickstart this project. The film is now being created by a group of 30 animators who are making one scene each. What began as a experiment of sorts is now the biggest crowdfunding project in India.
Punyakoti targets both children and adults. “I have seen my kids watch Spanish and Japanese movies. I am led to believe that if the movie is visually appealing, kids will not discriminate on the basis of language,” says Shankar. “In fact, most children’s movies are actu- ally condescending because there is a deliberate effort to keep things simple. We underestimate children and think that they don’t understand the complexities of life.” He is not aiming for a blockbuster hit, but a movie that stands the test of time. “The movie is going to exist for at least a 100 years. It will justify its existence in due the course of time because I am certain that the need for Sanskrit is only going to grow.”
Shankar hopes to complete the movie in 2016. The core panel of the movie has some acclaimed names besides Ilyaraja, who Shankar feels blessed to work with: The characters are being designed by Rakesh P. Nair who designed the National Games mascot, Ammu. The editor is a National Award winner and most of the team is working on this project unconditionally, without expecting any rewards. “I have to pinch myself at times to realise I am actually doing this. It feels like it is for some greater good and I am just a medium.”
After all the roadblocks, the project finally started gaining traction when he was invited to IIT Mumbai to speak. The media picked up his story and he began getting affirmative responses. One of these came from Singapore, from someone who had been planning to make a movie in Sanskrit for years.
The crowdfunding project is on till 31 July 2015. Visit www. punyakoti.com to extend your support and be a part of the project.