BackThe drawing room
Acclaimed animators Ram Mohan and Gitanjali Rao put their heads together on the past, present and future of Indian animation
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The Padma Shri recently awarded to veteran animator Ram Mohan caps an illustrious career that spans the government and private non-profit sectors. Mohan, who is now 83, abandoned a postgraduate degree in physics to join the newly established cartoon film unit at the Films Division (FD) in 1956. He was part of a team that trained under Disney Studios animator Clair Weeks, and went on to create animated sequences, titles and advertising shorts through his studio Ram Mohan Biographics (RMB), which doubled up as a quasi-university for countless animators. Mohan also animated sequences for feature films, including Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khilari, and co-directed a Japanese co-production of Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama.
It was at RMB that Gitanjali Rao, one of India’s leading animators, trained from 1994-96, putting into place the foundation for a distinctive visual style that has been seen in several commercials and her own films, including Printed Rainbow and, most recently, True Love Story. An affecting romance between a bar dancer and a flower seller, True Love Story won the top prize in animation at the Mumbai International Film Festival in February.
A short, visual history of Indian animation can be mapped by putting Mohan and Rao in the same room, which is just what we did. The conversation between the practitioners of one of the least developed creative expressions in the country covered a range of subjects—Mohan’s years at FD, his work with the Japanese and with Ray, Rao’s experience at RMB, the challenges she faces in getting her films off the ground, and the perennial quest for an Indian animation idiom. For all the talk about India being a hub for animation, the path of the independent animation film-maker is one of struggle, disappointment and limited success. Mohan’s success in the past, and Rao’s present glory, provide some cause for hope. Edited excerpts from a conversation conducted at Mohan’s residence in Mumbai:
Gitanjali, when and how did you first encounter Ram Mohan?
404, Udyog Mandir (RMB’s office address in suburban Mahim in Mumbai) was the biggest school of animation. It was a very inspiring time. It was well-rounded and included exposure to Western classical music, Indian classical dance—it was a fertile period of people being exposed to different things and new explorations.
Mohan: The way it was usually done at RMB was that people said they wanted to learn and work in animation, and they were all welcome. People didn’t get traditional education, but they learnt while working and earned some money too. As we set out to do more and more work, we needed more professionals. It was a school in a way, a place where people could earn a bit and learn a bit.
At the time, people were looking for something different from the Disney style and from the work being commissioned by advertising agencies. They were aware of animation as a medium but very few of them had exposure to the production process. I used to tell them to try out everything and then decide (on their individual styles) for themselves later.
Is there any such thing as an Indian idiom of animation—a home-grown style?
Rao: We had a very distinctive style at the time of Films Division. We had an Indian, and a different, voice but in the 1980s and 1990s, it started going more towards the module (conventional). The Disney school was conventional animation and I never rebelled against it while I was there (at RMB). Once I had learnt, I felt like using that skill set for a different kind of animation. The conventions of Disney are still probably the strongest.
Mohan: Clair Weeks had told me that once you learn the fundamentals, you needn’t worry about which field you choose.
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