“Onek onek din agey, bohu dur deshe, chilo ek bishal rajjyo” (Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there was a massive kingdom) - the sentence is so nostalgic that it instantly transports us to the realm of Bengali fairy tales within seconds.
The story of a ‘bishal rajjyo’, ‘rajkumar’ and ‘rajkumari’ is something that no longer exists among what Bengali children prefer these days.When asked about their favourite animation series or movie, children nowadays joyfully talk about SpongeBob Squarepants, Batman, Avatar and many other foreign animation series. Chatting with them is always fun as it never ends with just sharing the name of the movie or series – the conversation comes with vivacious descriptions of everything, including characters, colours and so on. The question that arises here is what if these little fellows could enjoy the colours of our indigenous fairy tales and gain knowledge about their own roots by locally made, quality content?
Along with a bunch of other organizations, one of which is Duranta TV, many initiatives have been recently taken to create such a platform through which stories from this region can come to life on screen.
Meet ‘Chacha’, ‘Babu’ and ‘Jhumjhumi’ from Chacha Bahinir Ajob Kahini - an animation series by Maverick Studios. The 3D animation series which aims to bring forth the context of Bangladesh will release on October 27. Being aired on Nagorik TV initially, it will be available on iFlix in November. Wahid Ibn Reza, who is currently working with Sony Pictures Imageworks in Vancouver, Canada, has joined this animation project as executive producer, while Ami Sayeed and Sadman Alvi are the directors.
“Through this series, our goal is to revive the age-old fairly tales of Bengal, giving it a more modern twist. Therefore, children can relate to these in their own way. Besides, we also want to fulfill the gap of content that will talk of their native country in order to satisfy the expats’ demands for programs enriched with Bengali culture and values for children,” added Ami Sayeed.
The story revolves around the adventurous journey of Rajkumar and Rajkumari narrated by Chacha to his two little niece and nephew, Jhumjhumi and Babu. Certain colours such as pink, purple and green have been used to create a fantastic world of exotic creatures, magical realms and exhilarating conquests. 3D model artist of the team, Nazmul Hoque says, “One of the interesting features of the story line is whatever children say in the story, comes true.”
On this note, lead animator, Biswajit Roy adds, “The objective behind this is to subconsciously make children realize that their words are being heard, and that they have a say.”
According to the ever smiling associate director, Arif Sonnet, “Bringing out the best in the little voice artists was the most difficult part indeed.”
However, their core belief was that without having a skilled and dedicated team, this dream could not turn into reality. “Maverick Studios has built a skilled team through training to reach their goal,” informed Ami Sayeed.
The series is yet to raise full funding, thus the distribution is yet to get any final decision. A project like this requires big investment. The team intends to produce more episodes of Chacha Bahinir Ajob Kahini in the future, while they also plan on working in international projects like this.
Since the very beginning, Maverick Studios always aspired to create animation series of their own. Read on to learn more about how they grew and overcame their obstacles.
Journey of Maverick Studios
A brainchild of eight friends from Dhaka University, Maverick Studios kicked off their journey not too long ago by making corporate videos. Discovering their expertise and knack has helped them become more advanced professionally, while also exploring the business opportunity of it. Producing such videos for multinational companies like HSBC, Unilever, Grameenphone or Robi still holds a major share of their work.
Among the founding members, only two of them had basic knowledge regarding film making or operating cameras. Later, the team equipped themselves with the knowledge of animation techniques, editing, etc. through different virtual platforms like YouTube. On that note, Ami Sayeed, who is also the managing director of Maverick Studios mentioned that, “One of our biggest challenges was not having any proper educational institutes for learning these, especially animation, visual effects and motion graphics. The trouble with the self-learning process is learning something in an amorphous way.”
Prevailing over these challenges, Maverick had a strong hold on animation since its inception. The studio always carries an aspiration of making animation series or a show of their own, and Chacha Bahinir Ajob Kahini seems to be the very first step towards that. The journey wasn’t so smooth either.
Beyond having immense potential in the arena of VFX and animations globally, the current inadequacy of skilled workforce in the country seems to be a major obstacle. “If you ask me to say which area of this industry holds the most potential in the context of Bangladesh, I would say VFX and animation. However, the area is hardly explored by educational institutions or other public and private sectors,” says Md Farhad Chowdhury, who’s working as the VFX supervisor for Maverick.
While discussing the need for a skilled workforce in this field, Ami Sayeed says, “When something is being learned in an unstructured way, it makes people learn a lot of things beforehand, while the fundamentals come later. From our experience, the main drawbacks of this is the amount of time that’s wasted.” However, under appropriate learning setups, these hitches can be omitted. At present, a bunch of institutions are providing such training facilities, but they are not good enough to produce artists of international standard. According to Ami Sayeed, there is immense opportunity for animations or visual effects in the country. But, the industry needs to grow and expand. “I think being a part of this industry, it is our responsibility to help it develop,” he says.
Another challenge addressed by Farhad was that, in order to make a movie containing visual effects, each department requires at least 200 to 300 artists, but the industry doesn’t have such a large scale of artists yet. “We have around 250 properly skilled artists of Rotoscoping for film and VFX in our country,” he informed.
Bridging the gap
MVRK Lair, another endeavour of Maverick Studios offers courses on Rotoscoping, animations, motion graphics etc. Farhad says, “Those who want to learn Rotoscopy and animation don’t really need to know how to operate many softwares beforehand. In fact, they are required to learn through many more processes. We use two to three international standard softwares only.” After providing a few materials for free online with some assignments and being evaluated by those assignments, a bunch of them are chosen as eligible for the further training under the two-month long Rotoscoping course. Currently, there are 22 Rotoscoping artists – however, steps are being taken to increase the number of artists by 150 by next year.
Performing well in the training tenure ensures the opening of doors to Maverick for those who wish to enter the real workforce. By completing one year at MVRK Lair, eight animators are now working with the organization as both full-time and part-time artists. Considering this as a positive sign, Ami states that, “This healthy practice will surely help the industry to develop in the long run.”
To Farhad, it is a career that’s easily scalable. “If someone can work for a Hollywood movie after attaining a training of two months, then why not?” he says.
Maverick firmly believes that if Bangladesh wants to work in the international platform at a much bigger scale, it’s a prerequisite to develop each and every affiliated area beforehand. Starting from developing a concept to giving the content a final look - every department is interconnected to give a perfect visualization of any shot.
Going International
Maverick VFX is a one-of-its-kind of studio in Bangladesh that is working globally in different film industries. “Since we’re a studio, we work mainly in the post production part. At present, most of the movies around the world contain tons of visual effects. For instance, if a movie has 2,000 to 2,500 shots, it appears that 1,800 of the total shots are related to visual effects. Due to this, the post production demand has increased. On the other hand, the time frame to release a movie including the building concept and the end product has remained the same. Since the load and scale of work has expanded so much, it is no longer possible for one studio to handle the entire post production process like before. That is the reason behind the increase in third party specialized studios around the globe,” said Md Farhad Chowdhury.
Maverick is working on films, but in a minor way because of its huge expansion. The Rotoscoping department is essential for any movie that is heavy on visual effects. “It’s a tedious job. However, we are now focusing on Rotoscoping because it is the first step to get into the international business of production as a small vendor. At the same time, it is easy to learn. Currently this part of Maverick is involved in working on international projects including independent films, commercials and so on,” said Farhad.
Despite working for around six years, locally and internationally, Md Farhad Chowdhury finds each project equally challenging. “No matter how experienced we are, each project is a challenge. I still get intimidated after reading the brief.”
However, for those who prefer facing challenges, Maverick is definitely the place for them.
Future expectations
By creating quality animated content, Maverick, along with its well-groomed squad of Rotoscoping artists, animators, motion-graphers, etc., aims to work with international organizations like Marvel and many more. “We wish to achieve it within two to three years,” informed Ami Sayeed.
