Recently an artist friend, conducting one of our workshops, informed me about the passing away of a stalwart in the Indian animation industry. She shared a Wiki link on him and then I couldn't help reading up about him and finding out more. A lot of us outside the animation or artist fraternity may not have known him, therefore this small tribute for a big man.
Late Shri Ram Mohan (26 August 1931 - 11 October 2019) was an Indian animator, title designer and design educator. He was awarded a lifetime achievement award at the 2006 Mumbai International Film Festival and was awarded the Padma Shri the fourth-highest civilian award given by Government of India in 2014. He was also known as father of Indian Animation and was a veteran in the Indian animation industry, who started his career at the Cartoon Films Unit, Films Division of India, Government of India in 1956. He was chairman and chief creative officer at Graphiti Multimedia, a Mumbai-based animation company which was established in 1995, and later he also established the Graphiti School of Animation in 2006. He had won the National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Animation Film twice, You Said It (1972) and Fire Games (1983)*.
Watch him in this video 'The Story of Indian Animation', narrating the early beginnings of animation in India and how when he came to Mumbai, he just had a degree in Physics and Mathematics and had no intention of working in animation, primarily because there were no institutes or workshops on animation back then.
With a heavy heart, the Indian animation industry shared condolences for their greatest mentor of all times. With this little article we pay a tribute to Shri Ram Mohan and also salute the spirit of such lifelong teachers and legends, who laid a path for others to walk on.
India may not have yet produced an iconic animation character or a series with universal appeal but the presence of immensely talented Indian artists fills us with hope for the future of Indian animation. A case in example is Bombay Rose, a 2019 internationally co-produced animated film written, edited, designed and directed by Gitanjali Rao. The film had its world premiere at International Critics Week at the 2019 Venice Film Festival. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. The film follows the story of a flower seller falling in love. It is made by frame-by-frame painted animation in computer and took 18 months with 60 artists, including some of our artist teachers such as Vikrant Shitole and Rupali Gatti,
*Source: Wikipedia
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