Oh around ten years back I started my
career
Vito and for good or worse
of 2008 had begun and I was trying to
rigorously apply for jobs all over the
world I was trying to get into the next
is Disney or Pixar or double- all those
big studios and I was pondering myself
that if life is going to be this hard
when I am beginning how is it going to
be ten years later and that time I saw
his little YouTube video online that
changed my life it was by an animator
called Ralph Bakshi he is very old now
but he gave a very simple advice in very
brutal terms that decided my career as
an animator for the years to come I will
get into that advice but first let me
just quickly go through the basics of
why I decided to choose animation and if
I go back I realize it is a very simple
process it's a very simple subdivision
of art art is nothing personally for me
it is something that stems from your
heart probably through life experiences
comes out through a medium it could be
any subdivision like painting drawing
architecture and then when exposed to an
audience like you it generates an
emotional response and in that process
most importantly in that process it
purges your inner self for me art is
frustration simply in simple terms
because it purges my inner self
completely and then I am back to the
normal life if I do not create something
which I really want to create not
something which has very economical or
commercial value but something which has
come from my heart if I don't create
that I will die so for me that is my
personal definition of art and which
decided my career and then as I said it
can have several subdivisions now we
have some basic subdivisions like
architecture dance saying painting which
are the pillars of it and then we when
we mix them we get mediums like video
games animation so for me animation was
an amalgamation of or all arts combined
it had acting it had theatricality to it
it had photography it had good actors to
get involved in the process it had to
have good music good
design so I thought this is the best
medium for me I should be doing
animation so let's go into those
subdivisions so this is a painting
created by me so it is a story I'm
trying to tell as a painter and in that
process I'm exposing it to you trying to
get some kind of response from you and
I'm getting myself purged and that's all
that is there so this is painting it
could be some written words let's say
something as simple as few written words
another shortest
story by Ernest Hemingway for sale baby
shoes never one very simple few words
but it generate quite an emotional
response when heard now when we talk
about cinema cinema is nothing but a
sequence of photographic images you know
you have lot of realistic photographic
images you put them in a sequence you
accompany them with very good sound and
you get cinema and the most important
aspect in this is writing because it is
a very literary medium which a lot of
people do not realize people just think
it's just gorgeous visuals and I'm on a
write cinema comes from literature so
that was my idea of art when I got into
animation because animation is literally
cinema it is just a sequence of images
and nothing more
now people tend to think that animation
is a completely different medium but
it's just paintings handmade images
created by artists like you and me which
put in a sequence accompanied by sound
you get cinema something like this I
just create a few drawings and then put
them in a sequence and you have
animation so what is the problem
everything is well and good I should be
finding the right courier for me the
problem is whenever you try to go
mainstream you have to you have to
commoditize art there is if there is no
economic value in something that is
shelved away and that was the exact
problem that I faced so when I talk
about animation what do you think what's
the first thing that comes in your mind
probably this write something like toys
come to life but I'm good
what about this a preschool pick who
participates
and activities I mean there's completely
nothing wrong with that but that is a
very very small section of what the
potential of animation could be and it
just crushed me as an artist when I
thought I was going to apply to this
kind of studio or something like this
which you all know and a nine-year-old
boy braved doing happy-go-lucky
activities and I was devastated when I
realized this is this is the kind of
imagination I had about art and when you
commoditize well enough you can really
there is no limit to it so I thought
maybe this is how it is going to be
since I cannot put any economic value in
my art but then I stumbled upon better
things what if I told you we can have
good adult oriented mainstream animation
which talks about real issues of the
world or which reflects the kind of
issues we have and right now it's a very
simple film that came out in 1972 Fritz
the Cat so it's so simple satire
focusing on American college life of the
era race relations the free love
movement and left-wing politics I'm sure
you wouldn't have imagined something
like that in animation it's a gold
standard of explicit razor-sharp
political commentary and I thought
probably I have to find something like
this and then I realized there are
better films also like Tokyo Godfather's
an alcoholic a drag queen and a
dependent girl discovered an abandoned
baby in the trash
on the Christmas Eve and I was drawn
away I realize noon this film has not
made much money but probably it is in
the line of the films that I'm trying to
make and very recently a film that came
out it is simply about a severed hand
that escapes from a dissection lab
determind to find its body the kind of
stories that were speaking to me for
existing they were just not there for me
to get exposed to because they were not
mainstream or something like this a
board office worker may have
accidentally sparked a revolution that's
the kind of story we can create an
animation because anything is possible
so this is a feature film that I am
working on right now and I am very very
proud of it that somebody from his
bedroom can create an animation and get
the tenants from all over the world it
is very interesting and I will talk a
lot about it in a little bit so what I
am really talking about his art house
animation in simple terms something that
has no commercial value but it really
gets the full potential of that medium
can do but when you go through that you
realize there are a lot of hurdles like
when I go to people when I go to
producers they say maybe you should go
to Europe you know they have tax
incentives Japan has the manga culture
u.s. is the land of Disney or China is
pushing the government is pushing the
art very much you should go there or
Latin America has not a good studios you
should try to make a film there and when
I come to India I get bamboozled by
these kind of questions that oh your
film has such a bigger budget how much
time does it require four years I can
make the film in six months and get 100
crores back that's the kind of mentality
that we have because in live-action it
is very very easy to shoot a film post
producer in six months and get good
revenue out of it and it has very long
gestation period and animation requires
four or five years to get finished
because it's it's handmade right and the
first thing that we have in our country
is it is a service-based industry period
there is nothing more that is happening
here whatever you guys want to do right
now it will end up in a big cubicle and
that will be your life for the rest of
your I mean career because we cater to
other people we cater to the innovations
done by others we do not tend to create
much because that is how we have been
wired during our college and schooling
and it is extremely important to realize
why did you get into this profession or
this artform in the first place and if
you are not realizing that you will keep
catering to other people's innovations
which we are doing right now and other
than that we live in an extremely
diverse country there are people who
have good taste there are people who
have bad taste there are people who have
no money
at all to watch the film there are
people who just want to have a good time
in the theater so how do you pitch them
this kind of art house animation so
these are the hurdles I was facing and
they were brutal to me so I realized I
have a quest I want to create an Indian
art house animation that stays true to
its heart no matter what and I will not
compromise for me compromises devil I
will not do that and it will reach its
audience and most importantly it should
not create kill the Creator in the
process because it will mind you it is
very very very hard because you have to
have some money near bank to survive and
then make these art house things because
they are absolutely no economic value so
I was on this quest around four years
back and this was my bedroom I was
creating this little short film and I
thought I will just leave my job I will
just focus on this film for one last
time I will try if I can have really
have a career in art or I will go back
to that creating that short of Eman
Disney so I created this film and
somehow it exploded it did really well I
didn't expect that because I was
thinking since it is not mainstream it
will not really go anywhere but I
realized I have to look beyond India for
this at least for now because not enough
people are making this thing so that
foam exploded I got a lot of attention
and now I am working on a feature-length
film of the same name it's going very
very well because now I am also getting
aligned by the like-minded people I'm
not getting aligned by the people who
say a chuckit navona lady it's not like
that it is very straightforward it is
just not about recouping your money it
is about creating it is about killing
that that barrier that we have around in
animation mainstream animation and
showing the people this is possible it
goes into very psychedelic territories
so it has all the elements of a epitome
of a perfect and imperfect society
okay so I have very very very very
simple advice for you you just have to
make it yourself at least for now okay
because first there is no market for it
nobody is going to support you you will
never have enough money even if you try
to ask your father or your parents they
will see some value in it but it is not
fair to ask money from people to be very
honest you have to be your own person so
if you do that yourself once and if you
keep trying maybe there will be a chance
that you have a chance at a career in
art and meanwhile the only way to do it
is not to do this because if you try to
mix this and that art and commercial
value paying bills paying the EMIs and
you want to mix art with it both will
suffer eventually and you will be in a
very dire state so now we'll do that I
cannot stress it enough just don't well
okay so uh all that is well and good
maybe you can write a scrip maybe you
can write a good screenplay maybe you
are a very literary person and maybe you
can director actors very well but then
it all comes down to is it even possible
the last time I heard though our story
food was made in two hundred and fifty
million dollars and you're asking me to
make a film on your own is it even
possible I have heard of Toy Story
required around 1,000 computers to
render a single frame it's true it's
true it was and I've also heard that was
made in four years by a team of 560
people who are professionals to be very
honest it would have been true 10 to 15
years back but right now if you give me
that excuse I have no respect for you
because right now every single thing
that you can imagine is free okay all
these tools that I'm telling you right
now they are all free and if you can
write you can create an animation if you
are focused enough so the the technical
achievements in hardware the software
are revolutionizing the indie animation
scene like anything like nobody has ever
seen before
so when I was pushing my firm to people
all over the world they first laughed at
me that your
is what in this much money can you even
make it can you pull it off then I
showed them I mean this is a real
incident I showed it to a very very big
producer from us and he saw a one-minute
picture of my film and I told him my
budget and he said in that budget Pixar
will make only one minute of the film in
which you are making the whole film and
I said it's I'm making it myself and he
didn't believe it so the point is this
is a time in which anything can happen
and if your excuses it's done by so many
people and it requires so much money
it's not worth it to put such excuses
just get on to making art so I have a
very simple recipe right first is
mastery storytelling that requires not a
TED talk that requires years and years
of reading and nothing else I mean throw
up your mobile phones it's not required
anymore if you want to master a
storytelling it's very important these
days because I come from that era and
there were no mobile phones you have to
understand if you want to master any art
it requires at least 10 years so 10
years of reading is good enough you can
try to make your story then and then you
can DIY or craft which I am doing do we
do things on your own try to find a way
try to be very creative how film can be
made find your own troubleshooting ways
and just do it and a lot of people right
now in Bangalore Mumbai Hyderabad in
chunks or tried to are trying to create
startups which will then focus on making
such films don't do that it's a it's
suicide just don't do that
you want to create art you don't want to
create a business you're not a business
person I mean I'm only talking to people
who are who are into serious art if you
tend to do that and if you're from
right-brain and you're mixing left-brain
adword you will eventually kill yourself
find a better person who can probably
give enough money or probably support
your passion project and just make that
passion project don't create companies
out of it it's not necessary and
absolutely you have to pay bills
freelance like anything right now a lot
of directors I know they are freelancing
they're doing simple gigs so that they
can put that money into a thing that
they want to create and it's working out
very very well and last
be very careful of what you consume
because that is I mean that is
essentially killing the people animation
right now they keep washing that same
thing that keeps coming out in the
commercial cinema and then they think
this is animation and I have no word for
it I mean you have to consume good stuff
otherwise it will fall as an art so -
and all this I will just show you what
was that advice that I saw in that
YouTube video by Ralph Bakshi which
changed my life 10 years back thank you