Animation is the next big thing in Bollywood and director Anubhav Sinha knows it well.
He has included about 20 minutes of animation in his forthcoming film, Cash. Though animation has been part of Hindi films for a while now, it was confined to the periphery in films like Hum Tum and Aap Kaa Surroor. The animation in Cash is more upfront.
The animation for this film is inspired from Japanese manga comics where the characters will have different hair colours. "While writing the film, I thought we should incorporate animation but we dropped the idea because of cost constraints," Sinha explains. "But after we returned from South Africa and saw the rushes, everyone suggested that animation should be included."
But that's not all. Anubhav is so impressed with animation that soon, he will make a full-length animation film.
"The animation in Cash has come out so beautifully that I have decided to make a full-length animation film," Anubhav says. A few days ago, Anubhav finalised the hairstyle of the protagonist of his forthcoming animated film, which would be pink in colour. Animation doyen Ram Mohan and Tilak Shetty, with technical work from Graffiti, have helped him in his animation venture.
Yash Raj Films have also announced their intention of making animation films in association with Walt Disney [Images]. Their first venture Roadside Romeo will be directed by Jugal Hansraj. It will hit theatres during summer next year. Karan Johar [Images] will also dabble with animation. Pritish Nandy Communications [Get Quote] has already started working on the animation venture of their film, Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena.
Looks like the year 2008 will be punctuated with a lot of animated movies.