Hollywood animation Inside Out has a desi twist to it. Three of our desi heroes have powered the animation film which is touted to be the biggest release by Pixar this year. Sajan Skaria, Vandana Sahrawat and Amit Baadkar tell Sangeeta Yadav that they enjoyed working in the international work culture and how the Indian animation industry is still an emerging market which will catch up soon
Behind every animation movie, there is a strong creative team that not only includes actors-turned-voice-over artists but also the character designer, special effects team, sound and visuals director and many more. Though animation in Bollywood has not been fully developed, Indian animation experts are making the country proud by bagging big banner Hollywood projects. One such movie is Disney Pixar’s Inside out which has three talented Indian experts — Sajan Skaria as character supervisor, Vandana Reddy Sahrawat as lighting technical director and Amit Baadkar as special effects’ technical director.
Inside out is the story of an 11-year-old girl Riley Anderson that portrays her in five emotions — Joy, Anger, Disgust, Fear and Sadness and how her journey unfolds. The film’s voice cast features Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Kaitlyn Dias, Diane lane, Kyle Maclachlan and John Ratzenberger.
Hailing from Trivandrum, Sajan Skaria is the man behind creating the look of the characters and bringing them alive on screen. After completing his undergraduation in computer science from the National Institute of Technology, Skaria went on to Texas A&M University to pursue his Masters in visualisation sciences. Since 2001, he has worked as a character supervisor in Pixar’s movies Finding Nemo, Cars 2 and Toy Story 3.
“I was working on an early version of The Good Dinosaur when Pete and his team invited me to join Inside out as character supervisor. I jumped at the opportunity since I had never worked with Pete before. Just walking into the door at Pixar and working at this amazing place is an achievement. Getting to work with the pioneers of the industry is a dream come true,” Skaria says.
But he feels that working in this particular project has been the biggest learning experience so far. “Inside out has been the greatest movie-making experience in my career. This one was by far the most meaningful and satisfying. I have a young daughter and so I could identify deeply with what the main character was going through. Working with Pete Docter and the creative team at Pixar is awe-inspiring. At Pixar, everybody has a chance to bring something to the table and I love that about the culture here,” Skaria, who is now working on Toy Story 4, tells you.
It was not just Skaria who was floored with the working ambience of Pixar. Even Vandana Sahrawat from Hyderabad, who is the lighting TD of Inside out, says this was a challenge which she was glad she took. “It’s always entertaining to watch shows with great actors like Amy Poehler and Mindy Kaling. Throughout the lighting process, it was really fun to see these actors shining through the characters they voiced. You’d catch a glimpse of the actors in a smile or a nose crinkle,” Sahrawat, who has worked in Babe – Pig in the City, says.
The third rising star Amit Baadkar from Mumbai, who worked as the effects technical director for this film, feels fortunate to work with Pete Docter who helped bring out his best. “The director of the film, is the closest to a Hollywood star that I personally got to work with. He was such an inspiration. This was the first time I’ve had the pleasure to work with him. It was quite a learning experience collaborating with him. He communicated what he wanted in a shot very clearly and made sure I understood the motivation behind everything. This really helped me grow as an artist and see his vision in order to put the best work up on the big screen,” Baadkar tells you.
It is not easy to make a visually perfect animation film. But the trio complemented each other very well. “Normally, when we set out to make a movie, we have a good idea of what each character is made out of. We might not know initially what they look like, but we at least know a few things. For example with Buzz lightyear, we know he’s made of plastic or with Mr Incredible, we know he has stylised human skin. With Inside out, we just didn’t know what Joy was made out of. We had nothing we could touch, feel and observe in the real world. We had to draw information out of Pete Doctor, Ralph Eggleston and Albert lozano’s minds. That was the single biggest challenge for the character team,” Skaria says.
For Sahrawat, who has donned many hats before including visual effects for live action movies; lighting for augmented reality projects, motion tracking and compositing, meeting the deadline was a tough task. “Deadlines are always a challenge. With the nature of work being creative, you always feel that you can make something even better. And whenever we explore a new territory, it takes more time. One of my sequences showed baby Riley imagining that she was playing in lava. There is no definite answer for how one can imagine something like this,” she says.
Whereas Amit, who started at Pixar since 2010 as an intern and having worked with every feature films, feels that the real challenge was to keep a balance and get the right effect. “The lava was one of the most complex and challenging effect that I’ve worked on. One of the challenges on this effect was to find the right balance in its bubbling and churning dynamics.
“The tears are another effect that was also quite tough to get correctly,” Baadkar, who was nominated by his peers to represent their department for the Annie and VES awards for the effects animation category for Inside out, tells you.
Talking about the India’s animation movie industry, Skaria feels that India is still an emerging market. “If the animation industry in India needs to grow, they will need to focus on quality by spending the time and iterating on the stories they’re trying to tell. It’s always a struggle to get a good movie out the door, but it can be done. I worked for a month in India and met some incredibly talented artists and animators.
“I feel India is still an emerging market, trying to figure out its directorial talent and work culture. It will catch up soon. I hope that includes a well-rounded catching up with a good work-life balance and pay structures for everyone,” Skaria concludes.
Talktime : Mindy Kaling
From being the author of the bestseller Is Everyone Hanging Out Without MeIJ and creator and actor of The Mindy Project to a voice over artist for Despicable Me, Wreck-It Ralph and now Inside Out, the multi-talented Mindy has come a long way and is hogging all the limelight. In an email interview with Sangeeta Yadav, she talks about her experience of shooting for Inside Out and her upcoming plans
‘Truly impressed with Rani Mukerji’
In Inside Out, you have given your voice for one of the emotions which Riley Anderson goes through. Was it difficult to be the voice over for the disgust mood of RileyIJ
I was offered the part and then I flew up to meet Pete Docter and producer Jonas Rivera in Emeryville. That was unusual for me, and a real treat. I have been a part of creating most of my roles. I think it helps that I have the voice of a twelve-year-old girl!
What was the challengeIJ
It is a big summer adventure movie that all takes place inside a young girl’s mind. I love that the two lead emotions (Joy and Sadness) are also played by women. You don’t see this very often and I think people are responding to how fresh that feels. I think it’s true of most actors: If you get a call from Pixar, you’re already excited. The movies that Pixar makes are just incredibly well made, so I was really excited.
Have you progressed a lot as a voiceover artist after doing Despicable Me, Wreck-It Ralph and now this projectIJ
These days I have been feeling so grateful for what I get to work on. Between Inside Out, The Mindy Project and writing my book, I’m happy. I know actors who are miserable no matter what they are doing and complain constantly about their jobs, and I just don’t identify with that at all. These are such great jobs to have, and it doesn’t feel like hard work when the material is so good.
Anything new that you would like to work on nextIJ
I love movies and really want to direct one that I write. Because I’m the show runner of my show, it’s hard to find a lot of time to do other things, especially with 26 episodes in season four. But I’m working on a film script now.
Any plans of working in BollywoodIJ
I would love to. I am so impressed by Rani Mukherji. I would love to act with her or write something for her.