It took Rahul Riji Nair almost four years, close to 10,000 hand-drawn frames, and a 15-member team to make a 14-minute film. For this, he learnt animation from scratch, changed his approach to filmmaking—all to bring to life a 17th-century Kochi that would become the premise of his story. Now, ‘Kingara Kavyam’ (Poem of The Enslaved) is taking him to the international finals of the DigiCon6 Asia Awards to be held in Japan.
The animated short recently won the ‘India Gold’ at the 28th DigiCon6 Asia Awards and will represent India at the finals, competing alongside winners from 14 countries across Asia. It is another major recognition for Rahul, a filmmaker who has already received national, state and Kerala Film Critics’ awards.
“When the organisers informed us that our movie won, we stood there wondering, does our movie really have what it takes to compete alongside animated movies from Japan and Korea?” he laughs; the disbelief and excitement were palpable in his voice.
Kingara Kavyam, a story set in 17th-century Kochi, revolves around the life of a ‘Kappiri’, a slave brought to Kerala from Africa by the Dutch and Kunjala, a local woman. “This film is an exploration of love and resilience woven into Kerala’s turbulent history, brought alive through the enchanting lens of magical realism.”
For someone who has been actively making live-action movies and series, the shift to animation was entirely new. “I am not an animator, but I always wished to give it a shot at making an animated movie.” He got down to the task of learning the basics of animation through YouTube tutorials during the Covid-19 lockdown. This was also when he developed the story of Kingara Kavyam.
Rahul completed the storyline at the writing stage itself. Then came the storyboarding, followed by the visual development. To give life to his vision, he collaborated with Carmond Infinity, a Kochi-based animation studio. “We were a 15-member team that worked on this project, full time.”
According to him, the team first considered 3D style, but later settled on 2D. “The animators too were confident about it. We thought of introducing something new to the animation though and it was decided to create visuals inspired by the Kerala mural art.”
The idea also helped create a believable world on screen. As they referred to paintings from that era to develop visuals.The project was not going to be a cakewalk—taking almost two years to complete—the reality hit Rahul on the job. “It took a long time and a lot of effort. Patience was key, and we ended up creating around 10,000 hand-drawn frames.”
The ‘production’ phase for an animation movie also offered a new experience for Rahul, “In a live-action movie, we usually get into the post-production in the last phase of the movie making process. But here, it was in reverse; we have to crack everything during the animatics stage. The aim was ‘minimal rework’,” he smiles as he gets into the nitty-gritty of it.
But why go after a style of filmmaking that can be time-consuming and gruelling?For Rahul it was all about the limitless creative freedom that comes with the form. “There are certain limitations to how much we can experiment in a live-action filmmaking, compared to that, there is more freedom in animation,” he says.
A large section of the crew had already worked with Rahul in his previous projects and agreed to join hands with him for the post-production when he shared about this passion project. He credits its completion and success to this collaborative effort.
For Rahul and his team, more than winning the award and the recognition, it was rewarding to see this movie come to life. “There were times when I had no idea where this was going and days when I had many self-doubts. But everyone was on board. We all wanted to create something new and cool,” he signs off.