First Looks

First looks of the characters in the movie

Lots of work, so little time...the November Diary and December Plan

1. November was a beehive of activities - visit to IDC, media mentions and interviews, initiating the music production and getting one 3 minute sequence off the ground.
2. Work on the online store and payment gateway begins. Have reached out to a friend of mine to take over the store aspects of Punyakoti.
3. Work on breaking down the movie into smaller segments (inside a scene) is making good progress. This allows for better grouping and planning production. This will be a big talking point on 30 November. This came as a fallout during my meeting with the faculty at IDC 2 weeks back.
4. 30th November, a group of animators are meeting at the Press Club to see how we can take portions of the work on layout and animatics to the next stage. Hoping to complete animatics for 5 scenes in December. We have about 20 weeks to get there by April 2015.
5. December, I will be in KIIT, Bhubaneswar and am planning to share the project with the students and faculty there. My dream is to request KISS (Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences) to be part of the Punyakoti project. Wish me luck.
6. December will also see the characters design completed and work on the movie style comic book begin in right earnest.
7. Work on merchandising will start in December.

First what?

There was a healthy debate about the FIRST in the First Sanskrit Animated Movie last week. Yes, it is the first, no dobut and it will generate some interest because of that. But what is more important about Punyakoti is the attempt to crowdsource content from various studios and animators. The platform for showing the movie's progress and planning on the website (www.punyakoti.com/resources.html) is also a novel experiment. The fact that we want to publish the written musical scores is a novelty. The fact that we are doing all of it is not to get some cheap publicity or curiosity is also a first! Then why are we doing it - to genuinely kickstart a trend of collaboration using the connected social nature of the Internet. It is more challenging and full of hurdles, but it is also a journey of discovery and fulfillment. Punyakoti should go beyond just another Sanskrit movie experiment. It should touch a chord in the audience and help kids connect with the language, heritage and pride in our culture. Time will tell.

Media Coverage - Thanks

The last couple of weeks saw a flurry of media coverage for Punyakoti. The article in the Hindu generated the most engagement with responses around the world. Online magazines covered us as well. Thankful to all my friends in media for the postive mentions. And all our contributors. Now we are confident of taking the film to through pre-production by April 2015. Please continue to share with friends.

More than 45 people from different parts of india have signed up to support the pre-production of Punyakoti in various capacities in the last one week. I am humbled.

Phone calls from the media and well wishers are pouring in since there was an article in the Hindu. A student offered to give 1111 Rupees for the project. It is instances like this that touch me. Gandhi's words, "Find purpose, the means will follow" keeps echoing in my ears.

Punyakoti at IDC, IIT - B

At the IDC Auditorium on 11th November - explaining the design behind the movie project. Very humbled by the receptiveness among the students. We have to make project successful to enable further experiments in the domain. What if this model can trigger experiments in creating content for farmers or schoolkids. I am already excited at the possibilities.

Glen Keane - Duet making of