The year 2014 witnessed the power of true storytelling through the use of animation as a medium in Indian cinema landscape for the very first time.
The Harry Baweja helmed animation feature ‘Chaar Sahibzaade’ made believers out of the naysayers, who time and again had written off the Indian animation industry to ever being able to deliver on its promise. But, very little was known about the animation studio that worked tirelessly on the project for a few years Interactive Realities, now known as iRealities.
‘Chaar Sahibzaade’ was the first photo realistic 3D animated film on Sikh history and is based on the real story of the sacrifices of the four sons of Guru Gobind Singh – Baba Ajit Singh, Baba Jujhar Singh, Baba Zorawar Singh and Baba Fateh Singh. Produced by Pammi Baweja and directed by Harry Baweja; it released on 6 November 2014 in Punjabi, Hindi and UK English, and received an overwhelming response from the audience across the globe. The movie has been praised for its emotional and unbiased portrayal of one of the most important chapters of Sikh history.
Now according to sources close to the makers of the film, the sequel is being worked upon and is in the initial pre-production stage. TheGraphicSlate.com has also exclusively learned that Prime Focus India would be working on the animation and post-production of the sequel which will be once again be directed by Harry Baweja.
The fist part only used still images of Guru Gobind Singh for reference. And actor Om Puri gave his soothing but heavy voice for Guruji’s dialogues in the movie. And because of the religious background, every dubbing artist in the movie was anonymous and no voicing credit was given in the film.
Now its yet to be seen how Prime Focus deals with this delicate topic and doesn’t go overboard on giving it a very photo realistic effect and more importantly manages to connect with the viewers and the religious sentiments of Sikhs globally.
The first part, which was made at a budget of about Rs 10-12 crore has managed to earn Rs 90 crore globally with only 350 prints and boasts of a 8.7/10.0 rating on IMDB.com with over 6,500 critics votes. According to sources the sequel will hit screens only in the latter half of 2017, but then again one can never really predict delivery dates when dealing in high quality animation.
