One for the Road

A Gandhian bear,a well-meaning yet militant monkey,a justice-seeking widowed leopardess and her vulnerable cub have come together to make their home a safe place.

A Gandhian bear,a well-meaning yet militant monkey,a justice-seeking widowed leopardess and her vulnerable cub have come together to make their home a safe place. These residents of Mumbais Sanjay Gandhi National Park decide to make a trip to Delhi to seek the Prime Ministers help after a tragedy threatens the safety of their abode. And in order to do so,they kidnap a snooty animal-despising parrot from South Mumbai,who will translate their animal talk for the humans benefit. Delhi Safari,Indias first 3D animation film set to release in September,may have a message in there but filmmaker Nikhil Advani insists that theres a lot more to it. Its really a road movie,just like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.

With voiceovers from Boman Irani (bear,Bagga),Govinda (monkey,Bajrangi),Akshaye Khanna (parrot,Alex),Urmila Matondkar (leopardess,Queen) and Swini Khara (cub,Yuvi),the film has been in the making for nearly four years. Denying reports of a delay,Advani says that it is only natural to take this much time. It was a completely new territory for me there were no actors,props,sets to play with. Once we had designed the concept,we had the actors do a workshop where they enacted their lines. This helped the animators to capture their expressions. Then we had to dub and work on the animation.

The time was also spent trying to get the right Hollywood partners on board for an international release. Advani has managed to rope in actors Venessa Williams,Jane Lynch,Christopher Lloyd,Jason Alexander,Cary Elwes and Brad Garett for the Hollywood dub. Ive always attempted to bridge the gap by making a film that will appeal to the Western and Indian audience. That was the plan with Chandni Chowk To China too, he says,referring to his mega-budget failure.

Yet,Advani is acutely aware that the genre stands at a disadvantageous position in India and a strong marketing plan is required to sell the film. To do so,Delhi Safari has partnered with over 1,000 schools,various NGOs and environmental organisations. It will take that one animation film to click,before producers get interested in the genre. These days,everyones demanding a Delhi Belly-like script. But the industry needs to take more risks,make more small-budget films,give newcomers a chance, says Advani.

Advani sounds ironical,since the director started his career with assisting Sudhir Mishra and then Karan Johar,before making it big with his directorial debut Kal Ho Na Ho. This was followed by two huge box-office failures Salaam-e-Ishq and Chandni Chowk To China and an average Patiala House. However,stars have always been a mainstay in Advanis films. I couldnt help it. Every time I started out small,someone would like the concept and ask me to go big, he argues,Ive always just been lucky.

But Advani is ready to fix it. The filmmaker is now looking at producing films to give newcomers a chance. Meanwhile,I intend to write,read the books being penned by Indian authors in order to see if something is worth an adaptation. I will let direction take a backseat, he says.

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Boman Irani

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