from the Mumbai Mirror:

After the success of the first animation movie Hanuman, plans are underway to make a similar film on Krishna. “This is not a one-off phenomenon but a long-run trend with more movies on Gods and Goddesses coming up in the years to come,” says Mahendra Hathi who originally conceived the Hanuman animation.

Currently he is busy sketching out the concept and also the scripting of the Lord Krishna saga to which he holds the ‘copyrights’. But the process of translating his Hanuman vision onto celluloid had its initial share of hurdles.

“When I came up with the concept of Hanuman, way back in 1997, people were sceptical because they felt that the adult Hanuman had an overwhelming image. How could the Hanuman-devotees relate to him as a child? So it was decided originally to make only the English version,” recalls Hathi. “It’s more like a mainstream Bollywood movie. The success of Hanuman is all set to create an animation boom in showbiz and we are planning to support it religiously,” asserts Shailendra Singh, MD Percept Picture Company.

Meanwhile, Hathi is excited about working on the concept of Krishna. “It will encompass his charming ‘gopis’ and his raas-leela. After in-depth research we have started to finalise the actual content and climax of this animation. This time it will be a bigger challenge for me and the technical support team,” says Hathi.

Incidentally, the ornate chariots and war weapons for B R Chopra’s mega telly serial Mahabharat (on DD-I) were designed and fabricated at Hathi’s massive workshop.