An animation team of 225 has been creating fresh content for two popular TV shows by tweaking their working process from home
Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 12, 2020)

The Coronavirus-induced lockdown has brought the film and TV industry to a halt, with shoots being cancelled, releases pushed indefinitely and TV channels forced to air reruns of popular shows. Reliance Animation is among the few entertainment companies actively working in isolation on two TV shows, Little Singham and Golmaal Junior. Playing on Discovery Kids and Nickelodeon respectively, they are animated versions of two Rohit Shetty franchises, Singham and Golmaal, both fronted by Ajay Devgn.

COO Tejonidhi Bhandare (right) informs that they have created around 25 episodes, of 22 minutes each, during the lockdown. “It takes us around 10 days to lock the script, followed by 15-20 days of animatics and another 15- 20 days for animation,” he informs, admitting that there is a minimal 10 per cent loss in quality because the units are working in isolation.

The team of 225 has been collaborating daily on different aspects of the shows. They had divided the data among themselves a few days before the lockdown. “Around 70 per cent of the team had machines at home and the remaining were equipped with systems from the office. The file sizes for 2D animation are relatively smaller and can be transferred easily on cloud. The only challenge lies in the voiceover and background score,” says Bhandare.

The working process has been tweaked to help the animaters work from home. “Earlier, we’d write the script, do the voiceover and proceed to animatics and animation. Now, we start with scratch voices, move to animatic and animation and finally do the voiceover based on the final output,” he explains, encouraged by the fact that ratings of all kids channels have gone up in the lockdown and the delight of their TV partners to receive fresh episodes even during the crisis.

Shibasish Sarkar (left), CEO, Reliance Entertainment, reveals that the team had anticipated the lockdown following the pandemic across the world in the second week of March and provided their employees with infrastructral support as per their requirements. “We managed to provide fresh episodes of Little Singham when all live-action series have settled for re-runs. It’s a positive development,” he exults.

Protagonists of the filmmaker’s small screen Golmaal borrow attributes from original characters
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 15, 2019)

Mirror had earlier reported (April 5) that Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal series is getting an animated show for kids titled Golmaal Junior and will feature the original protagonists, Gopal, two Laxmans, Madhav and Lucky. In the comedy franchise, the roles were played by Ajay Devgn, Shreyas Talpade, Kunal Kemmu, Arshad Warsi and Tusshar Kapoor respectively. In the small screen version, which will air on Sonic channel, the story will revolve around the two prank gangs headed by Gopal and Madhav.

Now, Mirror has learnt that like Ajay’s character, his junior alter ego will be the ringleader of his gang, while the kiddie gang has also borrowed attributes from their seniors. “The junior Lucky (originally played by Tusshar) is the silent member but this time, his get-up includes a big belly and a lollipop. The first Laxman of the two (Shreyas) is a lovable character and a confidante to his ‘Gopu’ and sports a nerdy look with a mushroom haircut and round spectacles. The second one (Kunal) has been given a messy avatar, and recites shayaris, just like the senior. The junior Madhav (Arshad) is as wicked as the senior one,” says a source.

Jointly produced by Rohit and Reliance animation, the show will premiere in May. The Golmaal franchise, which has had four instalments so far, kicked off in 2006 with Ajay, Tusshar, Arshad, Sharman Joshi and Rimi Sen as the central cast. It was followed by a sequel in 2008, Golmaal Returns, with Kareena Kapoor as the new leading lady and Shreyas Talpade replacing Sharman as Laxman. The third instalment released two years later, followed by Golmaal Again in 2017, this one going into the supernatural realm with Parineeti Chopra and Tabu on board. Rohit had recently announced that part five is currently being planned.