Animation has always been a polarizing topic of discussion in India. While a large part of Indian population considers animation to be a minimal subject and specifically for “kids”, a dedicated strata of society prefers it to be universal.
While there have been plenty of quality animation from all over the world, India has always struggled in that department. While growing up many of us would’ve been acquainted with shows like Doraemon, Perman, Beyblade, Pokemon, Dragon Ball etc. While we were young weren’t familiar with the concept of anime or dubbing, we thought all the cartoons are Indian cartoons but now when will look back, there weren’t enough Indian cartoons and infact there was an excess of Japanese cartoons which were dubbed in Hindi.
While Indian animation itself hasn’t tried anything new since it’s beginning, as according to the Indian makers, animation has always been about mythology. There have been plenty of animated movies surrounding around Gods and thus no new ideas have originated ever since. No one looks beyond Hanuman, Bal Ganesh and instead of trying something new and different makers always adds new twist to these such as bringing these characters of God into a child form living present era going to school, fighting burglars and stuff.
With the emergence of Chhota Bheem and it’s spinoffs it has given rise to the same old bollywood tradition of main characters beating goons single handedly. But the storyline itself has become remote. Instead of trying something new, the makers are getting influenced by the western way of animation which includes superheroes and supervillains. And taking the idea from there create the same things, there are ample shows which can give you the idea of what we’re talking about here.
The point is that animation in India hasn’t really taken off as people with conventional mindset doesn’t see animation as a strong contender to portray emotions and content. Here people aren’t willing to take risks in the field of animation and this also coincides with lack of originality in the content.
Even the writers don’t think of writing a story which can possibly be turned into a good animation series, the thing with Indian market is that once a live action movie gets successful enough worldwide then only they’ll try to make an animated version of it, as we have seen in the case of Baahubali. This is just opposite to other countries where animations work as source materials for live action adaptations.
Seeing no pressure in not able to compete or even create a decent enough animation movie or series with a decent enough original content with others is probably the main factors so as to why there hasn’t been any push even from the young directors in India.
But as we all know India has always been behind in terms of thinking out of the box in entertainment industry and the fear of taking risks adds onto the stigma. With the crew eyeing profits even before the release of a content would generally not venture into a risk filled market.
And if you think India doesn’t have good animation studios then you are absolutely wrong. Several of the animation studios have worked in bringing out the realistic animation in movies like The Jungle Book or Life of Pi as well. It’s just that the creativity and the willingness to try something original is missing from Indian Minds in the field of animation.
Then again comes the question for audience, while majority of audience feels animation is for kids and they should feel this because India doesn’t showcase animated shows and movies which are suitable for adults. The governing body has maintained a strict rule against gore and explicit contents and only kiddie animation is running nowadays in India. The audience also doesn’t expect much for Indian makers as they have other options from all over the world and with emergence of OTT platforms, content from all over the world is available at a single touch.
Hence, lots of thinking is to be done regarding Animation in India, Will we see a groundbreaking animated show/movie in the coming years? Let’s wait!
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