THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For 10-year old Aditya Manoj, cartoon characters such as Chhota Bheem and Little Krishna have been part of his meal-time entertainment ever since he was a toddler.
Now that he has grown past his toddler days, he started showing more interest towards Japanese cartoons such as Crayon Shin-chan, Doraemon and the hindi-dubbed version of French cartoon Oggy and the Cockroaches.
The reason why he opts to watch cartoons which don’t have Indian mythological characters is that he finds it more funny.
Also, it can be easily used as a topic of converstation with his classmates. His mother Darshana says Aditya started watching Shin-chan and his little sister Himawari after he, himself, became an elder brother.
This change in attitude among children who prefer cartoons that are set in urban setting with a universal theme is making the animation industry to rethink on content which is heavily dependent on Indian mythology.
“Children are shifting their focus away from mythology. The industry has to produce more local content with general themes,” said P Jayakumar, CEO of Toonz Group, a pioneer in the genre of mythology with series such as Adventure of Tenali Raman, Hanuman, Swami Ayyappan.
Mythology had made a grand come back through cartoons in the beginning of the century, almost two decades after Ramayana and Mahabharat series were aired in Doordarshan in the 1980’s. And once these cartoons became a hit, all-time favourites like Power Rangers, Transformers, Spiderman and Tom and Jerry started receiving less patronage from kids in India. Cartoons such as Chhota Bheem then became a phenominal success and became the number one in terms of viewership among children. “ Mythological themes may not work all the time,” says Rajiv Chilaka the creator of Chhota Bheem series and founder of Green Gold Animation. And how did Chhota Bheem and the recent cartoon, Roll No. 21 make an impact? By tweaking mythology to suit the needs of children.
Finding an universal theme is the current challenge for the industry which has matured over the years. “ The reason why mythology succeeded was because the story was inculcated strongly in the psyche of the Indian. However, it is a different scenario in the foreign markets, which we find tough to penetrate,” says Arnab Chaudhuri, director of animation movie, Arjun: The Warrior Prince.
But directors such as Olivier Jean-Marie who made Oggy and the Cockroaches have proved that cartoons with universal themes, even if they are without dialogues can be accepted anywhere around the world. According to Jayakumar, atleast five per cent of the total content should be reserved for local themes. He says he is hopeful that the central government would take appropriate measures in the direction. The group has launched an online cartroon channel called Chotoonz TV to air series such as Pakdam Pakdai, Bunty or Billy etc with such themes.
Fact file
Mythology had made a grand come back through cartoons, almost two decades after Ramayana and Mahabharat series were aired in Doordarshan in the 1980’s.