Indian-origin director debuts with film on Hindu deities

New York: An Indian-origin animator in the US will debut as a director in theatres on November 25 with his short film, a media report said.

Working as an animator with Pixer since 1996, Sanjay Patel made his first project that revolves around Hindu deities who are like avengers, Variety.com news portal reported on Tuesday.

“Sanjay’s Super Team”, the first Pixar film on Hindu deities and the first Pixar toon by an Indian-origin director, is a short superhero movie that will be attached to Pixer’s another animated film “The Good Dinosaur”.

Premiered on June 15 at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France, the seven-minute short film will be played before “The Good Dinosaur” when it hits the silver screen.

Patel’s film revolves around a little Hindu boy who prefers cartoons of superheroes while his father wants him to join the morning prayers, the report said.

One day, the boy sees Vishnu, Hanuman and Durga as the avengers who save him from a problem.

While he was researching about the characters of Hindu mythology from the comic books of Amar Chitra Katha (Immortal Picture Tales), he did not actually draw according to them, he said.

Patel said the story of the film is as much about Sanjay’s relationship with his father.

“I was a late bloomer in my parents’ culture,” he said, adding that after working for 10 years at Pixar he discovered Indian art and mythology.

“It helped me understand why my parents said ‘Sita Ram’ when I sneezed,” Patel joked.

Patel has worked as an animator on films like “Monsters Inc.”, “Ratatouille”, “Cars”, “Monsters University”, “Toy Story 2” and “The Incredibles”, and has been a story-boarder on the latter two films.

IANS