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Textual content by Prachi Sibal. Images by Rose Tommy.
Tina and Pratheek Thomas at their workspace of their Kochi house.
Tina and Pratheek Thomas had been born on the identical day, 4 years aside. And that is simply one of many many coincidences that ties them collectively. Each storytellers at coronary heart, the 2 first exchanged glances whereas furiously scribbling away of their particular person notebooks on a prepare journey from Bengaluru to Kochi in 2010. On the time, she was writing a script for a tv present, he was engaged on a comic book ebook. They’d get married within the following 12 months.
By happenstance, their small enterprise, a comic book ebook publishing home, was launched on February 14, 2014. They referred to as it Studio Kokaachi, after a not-so-beloved monster that’s a part of Malayalam folklore — and who they had been launched to as youngsters. Each Tina and Pratheek preserve that the kokaachi has been misrepresented in fashionable tradition and, in actuality, shouldn’t be a scary monster as it’s generally believed. They usually have taken it upon themselves to unfold phrase about this little-known facet of the imaginary monster’s persona.
The kokaachi monster types the emblem for Studio Kokaachi.
Studio Kokaachi isn’t Pratheek’s first brush with the world of comedian books. A comic book ebook fan by his childhood years, he graduated from NID (Nationwide Institute of Design), Ahmedabad and went on to work at ISKCON (Worldwide Society for Krishna Consciousness) in Bengaluru. “I used to be working with the design wing and was concerned in a undertaking pertaining to country-wide theme parks that had been to have Krishna as a central character,” he says. An unlucky layoff and months with out a job again in 2008 led him to embrace his past love, storytelling.
Manta Ray Comics — a partnership with good friend and fellow comedian ebook nerd Dileep Cherian — was thus born, with its first ebook Hush popping out in January 2011. “My brother is an advert film-maker and he had an concept for a brief movie. I needed to adapt it into a comic book so he may pitch it to producers,” Pratheek says concerning the first title.
In 2012, when Tina was working at Wipro in Bengaluru, she recollects Manta Ray being “just like the child at house”. Her first caricature appeared in The Small Image, a weekly contribution by Manta Ray Comics in Mint, in the identical 12 months. Commenting on social and cultural points, it ran for greater than three years.
The quilt of Mixtape Vol. 2 that was republished by Studio Kokaachi in 2014.
By the way, it was with this outing that Manta Ray first gathered acclaim; helmed by Cherian, it stood out notably for its simplistic out-of-the field themes and artworks. In a market saturated with mythological and superhero tales, this was genre-bending.
Manta Ray printed Mixtape Vol. 1 in April 2013 — it comprised 4 particular person black-and-white graphic narratives, illustrated by a mixture of upcoming and well-known artists. Every was priced at a mere 55 rupees for the digital model. Mixtape Vol. 2 — in an identical format — adopted on the finish of the 12 months: the result was 5 brief tales revolving round eclectic narratives; these included a person chasing a pickpocket, a biting satire on social media and a story of affection gone fallacious.
However the couple quickly realised that creating and publishing comedian books isn’t straightforward cash. It did, nevertheless, make them a unique — and extra profitable — trade, one which that they had by no means imagined attempting their hand at.
Onto The Silver Display
Left to Proper: the Mixtape sequence; a collage of frames from the animated sequences within the 2015 Tamil movie OK Kanmani and its 2017 Hindi remake OK Jaanu.
The launch of Manta Ray’s Mixtape Vol. 2 at Malayalam film-maker Aashiq Abu’s Cafe Papaya in Kochi led to a proposal by Abu, who was eager on collaborating with the duo for his 2014 Malayalam movie Gangster. Calling themselves Studio Kokaachi now, their first steps into the world of movies led to a whopping 11 minutes of animation that coated the prologue and the climax.
“Aashiq Abu additionally needed us to put in writing screenplays for a brand new undertaking. It didn’t find yourself taking place however we had already moved to Kochi from Bengaluru, to work with Abu,” recollects Tina. Studio Kokaachi’s first comedian Mixtape Vol. 3 would solely be printed in October 2016. This may be adopted by An Autobiografly, an autobiography of a housefly, and the accordion-style Matchbox Comix Vol. 2. The massive gaps between releases is attributed to their ventures being self-funded.
For Mani Ratnam’s Tamil movie OK Kanmani (2015), Studio Kokaachi created each 2D and 3D animated sport sequences that supported the protagonist’s — a gamer — character arc in addition to the 2D finish credit. For the Hindi remake OK Jaanu (2017) the 3D sequences had been carried out in collaboration with Splat Studio, and the 2D sequences with Dreamcatcher Studios, whereas the opening credit score sequences had been created in collaboration with Plexus Movement.
A piece in progress: pages from Sound Of Her Silence, one of many tales within the yet-to-be-released Mixtape Vol. 4.
Quickly after, actor Neil Bhoopalam found Mixtape Vol. 1 at a restaurant in Goa. He confirmed it to director Akshat Verma, who was all in favour of making a graphic novel based mostly on their upcoming movie, Kaalakaandi (2018), additionally starring Saif Ali Khan, as publicity materials for it. Though it didn’t materialise, Studio Kokaachi was roped in for the movie’s title sequence in 2017.
Breaking Into OTT
Gully Boy (2019, on Vimeo): the opening titles by Studio Kokaachi
Tina and Pratheek stepped into the OTT title credit area with Lust Tales, the 2018 Netflix anthology produced by Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP Films and Ashi Dua’s Flying Unicorn Leisure. Since then they’ve created the title credit for six extra productions for Netflix — the Tamil limited-edition anthology movie Paava Kadhaigal (2020), the Hindi-Telugu bilingual Pitta Kathalu (2021) and the Hindi-language productions, Ghost Tales (2020), Ankahi Kahaniya (2021), Ajeeb Dastaans (2021) and the just lately launched Lust Tales 2. “For each the Lust Tales, we used components from the varied movies and stitched a story for the title credit. We tried to evoke the temper — the world and the characters are what we will mess around with. Paava Kadhaigal contains 4 brief movies about honour killing and the title credit offer you a glimpse of the temper that lies forward. The movies had been very darkish. The opening credit characteristic the journey of a girl from start to motherhood. We related all of the illustrations utilizing the color pink. Purple performs an essential half in a lady’s life — from menstrual blood to sindoor and the marriage sari,” says Tina.
Movie-maker Zoya Akhtar initially reached out to them to animate the emblem for Tiger Child Movies, her manufacturing home that was launched in 2019 with Gully Boy, after which requested if they’d do the title sequence for the movie as nicely. “After we bought referred to as for Gully Boy we didn’t realise how huge it was,” says Tina.
Left to Proper: a shortlist of title fonts for Gully Boy; the ideation pocket book for the movie’s title sequence.
From animated sequences in OK Kanmani and Abu’s Gangster to animated typography in Gully Boy, their repertoire was steadily increasing. Gangster had a graphic novel-inspired type. OK Kanmani has stylised, sport sequence-like animation. Lust Tales has a minimal design type. They’ve additionally carried out the animated brand for a Hollywood studio that hasn’t been launched but.
Regardless of the rise within the scope and amount of their work, Studio Kokaachi remains to be simply made up of Tina and Pratheek. Graphic designers, illustrators, artists and animators come on board based mostly on the calls for of the tasks they tackle. Their workplace premises have remained shut because the pandemic. The couple now works out of their house the place they stay with their 4 rescue canines. “Each of us are writers and storytellers, we’re not illustrators or animators. We conceptualise, write and supply the required path to the tasks, and collaborate with animators and artists for the remainder of our wants,” says Pratheek, including that they’ve gone from working with animation studios to now additionally handpicking freelance artists for particular tasks now. “We work with studios or freelancers based mostly on the amount of labor. OK Kanmani and Gangster had been exceptions the place we had been going past our mainstay — title credit — and creating longer animation sequences. We wanted studio assist to render them inside our three-month deadline.”
Tina with sketches for A Thousand Years, an upcoming comedian ebook.
Standing Out In The Litter
Cracking an idea for a movie or sequence stays their largest problem and might take weeks. Not everybody needs animation within the title sequence or is keen to share footage from the movie for a similar. “For The Empire, the Disney + Hotstar net sequence, we introduced 10 ideas, and all of them had been rejected by the makers. We had run out of concepts after which at midnight, I wrote down the phrase “Empire” on a blackboard. The phrase has six letters and there have been six Mughal emperors. It was like an epiphany,” says Pratheek concerning the credit score sequence the place silhouettes of the faces of six Mughal emperors flip to disclose the title of the sequence.
Studio Kokaachi hopes to veer in a brand new inventive path with each undertaking, however they select to keep away from stay motion. The credit for the Indian Fashionable Love anthologies, which premiered on Amazon Prime in 2022, performed with inventory photographs, whereas these for Rocket Boys (2022-’23) had been hand-drawn with minimal animation, an enormous departure in type from their earlier work. “We don’t have the ability set for stay motion and it is unnecessary for us to outsource it,” he says. “The opposite problem is coping with manufacturing homes that come to us with out understanding the restrictions of our subject. For instance, provided that they had been hand-drawn, we may replicate Jim Sarbh and Ishwak Singh’s facial options solely to a sure extent,” they are saying, referring to the Rocket Boys opening credit.
However this SonyLIV net sequence turned out to be their huge break. “With Lust Tales, individuals observed us however we didn’t get requires too many tasks. However when actors started to tag us on social media after Rocket Boys, there was a sudden explosion of curiosity,” Pratheek explains. Their work had now reached vital mass.
Left to Proper: Pratheek at work; his writing desk.
“We don’t fairly know the way it occurred however we have now someway develop into synonymous with title sequences. We’re not in Mumbai. We don’t exit and pitch. We’re not very energetic on social media –– we’re not even on WhatsApp,” he says, including that the conceptualisation and execution of title sequences as mini movies are in sync with their primary ability set as storytellers.
Of their seventh 12 months of making title sequences, Studio Kokaachi is awaiting the discharge of their twenty fifth undertaking, Pippa, a movie set throughout the 1971 Indo-Pak conflict. Then there’s Shiladitya Bora’s Bhagwan Bharose, the twenty fifth UK Asian Movie Pageant’s closing movie, which bagged the Greatest Movie award in Could. “We’ve additionally created an animated brand for Earthsky Photos (Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and Nitesh Tiwari’s manufacturing home),” says Tina.
The Artwork Of Credit score Sequences
Pratheek’s web page layouts for Hush.
Title sequences in Indian movies have integrated — from animation, handwritten slides and catchy music for aeons now. They’ve been a approach to preserve audiences entertained.
In earlier occasions, the tone, music and textual content typically conveyed the emotion of the upcoming movie and ready viewers for what was in retailer. “I personally choose credit the place a bit little bit of the film is proven. It captures the curiosity of the viewer,” says Bollywood buff Dhruv Somani. Earlier, he says, viewers wouldn’t thoughts lacking the tip credit score sequences however with film-makers selecting to run elaborate finish credit lately, that is not the case. “In Bollywood, that is additionally the place you’d generally discover the hot-ticket quantity that’s fashionable with the plenty,” chimes in Puneet Rakheja, who used to run the weblog Taking Credit score in 2013-’14, with the goal of decoding credit score sequences in movies.
“Although it’s not recognised by the Academy but, the title sequence is an artwork type in its personal proper. The opening credit are the primary visuals you meet in a movie. They’ll carry out numerous roles — as a story machine that pushes the story alongside, an introduction to the characters and big-ticket actors, and so forth. Currently, some are utilizing these title sequences as a approach to cross on refined clues about an anticipated plot; as an example, in Sport of Thrones, on the peak of its fervour, there have been loads of blogs and movies dedicated to the now iconic title sequences,” provides Rakheja.
The credit score sequences in Bollywood movies and OTT sequence largely stay in English, with the identify of the movies being spelt out in Hindi and Urdu at occasions. Down South, the credit have at all times been displayed within the native languages. “In Kollywood, all of the credit would seem in Tamil and solely the names of the important thing forged and crew can be talked about in English. The background music is usually punctuated with dramatic silence for giant names like, say, Ok. Balachander,” says film-maker and educational Ok. Hariharan. He believes simplistic titles are the best way to go and brings up Sholay (1975) for example, for its use of primary title playing cards — names handwritten on playing cards and photographed — that had been removed from ornate and but efficient. “There is no such thing as a very best credit score sequence. There are efficient or ineffective title sequences,” factors out Rakheja.
And standout sequences have stayed with audiences by the years.
Within the 1978 Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Don, the pre-credits scene has him throwing a briefcase on the goons. It explodes and leads us to the credit score sequence, which opens with a struggle. Introduced as colored movie negatives, the credit, accompanied by the theme music, set the tone for the high-paced chase that’s about to comply with.
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, film-maker, movie historian and founding father of the Movie Heritage Basis, cites the instance of the 1966 movie Teesri Manzil the place the opening credit finish with a girl falling off the third storey of a constructing in an effort to construct suspense.
“The sooner title sequences largely made use of title playing cards. The 1936 Devdas used an artwork deco typeface – that was fashionable then – towards a black background. Within the 1955 model, the credit seem because the pages of a ebook are flipped,” says Rakheja. “The outstanding expressionist body of a pair of eyes and a dozen palms within the 1957 movie Do Aankhen Barah Haath was placing; the opening sequence makes use of 12 handprints as a canvas for the credit.”
Somani recounts the presence of background music within the credit of black and white movies of the ’50s. “When Eastmancolor got here into the image, title credit turned extra eye-catching. The ’80s noticed a few of the most memorable sequences because of Nasir Hussain, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Raj Khosla and the Ramsay Brothers,” he says.
A double unfold from Hush.
The credit score sequences had been typically employed to create an environment of suspense. “These for low-budget horror movies by the Ramsay Brothers introduced with them a sure curiosity and evoked a temper that will lead viewers into the movie with out bringing in any components of gore. Raja Nawathe’s 1965 thriller Gumnaam, however, had blood splattered throughout the display screen, blatantly denoting a way of thriller,” he says.
Quick-paced sequences with applicable music had been for thrillers and horror whereas animation was reserved for comedies. In Sai Paranjpye’s Katha (1983), the credit score sequence tells us of the hare-and-tortoise fable with hand-drawn illustrations. It units a comic book tone and stays a thread by the movie, reoccurring on the finish.
The Results Of Digitalisation
The digital age that set its stamp on the 2000s noticed a brand new sophistication creep into title sequences. The manufacturing worth was higher and music was generally commissioned particularly for the credit score reels. In accordance with Rakheja, there has additionally been a shift in the direction of creating larger-than-life imagery. He cites Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017) for example; it used its title credit as a plot machine that gave viewers a glimpse of key occasions from the earlier movie. “Its title sequence animated scenes from the primary movie which lent them a larger-than-life really feel,” he says.
From the ’90s onward, there have been solely a handful of references that they speak about. “In latest occasions, Farah Khan began the pattern of making finish credit score sequences that the viewers would keep again to look at, we see it in Primary Hoon Na and Om Shanti Om,” says Somani, referring specifically to the latter, the place a number of of the forged and crew, together with technicians and spot boys, make an look. The sequence closes with the grand entry of the director in an auto. It was a tribute to the forged and crew of the movie that ideas a hat to the glory days of the Hindi movie trade.
The tip credit of Zoya Akhtar’s Luck by Likelihood (2009) additionally made a mark for its innovation. The credit score reel that the movie closes with incorporates a single lengthy shot of Konkona Sen Sharma in a black-and-yellow taxi, with town of Mumbai within the backdrop. From a starkly completely different style, Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), with its rugged, textured title playing cards, and Black Friday (2004), the place the title of the movie foregrounds the smoke-filled photographs of the 1993 Bombay blasts, are equally memorable.
A tough sketch from A Thousand Years.
Then there’s the flip aspect to digitally produced credit score sequences. Whereas embracing the digital instruments out there to create progressive and high-quality titles, most critics admit that the private contact is slowly disappearing. “All credit score sequences have began trying the identical. The creative interpretation is misplaced. Because it was not a straightforward job earlier, everybody considered progressive, unique concepts to make them stand out,” Dungarpur says. “It’s the identical with movie posters, you’ll be able to’t match the hand-drawn ones from the early days. Additionally, when was the final time you noticed a movie’s interval being introduced with a bang?” says Dungarpur, who has been sustaining a private archive of the ending pictures — particularly, “The Finish” frames –– of Indian movies.
The Resurgence
Left: Tina assesses tough sketches from Mixtape Vol. 4 and A Thousand Years.
A major pattern that has emerged with OTT movies and sequence is the outsourcing of credit score sequences to studios and producers past the silos of movie circuits. With OTT platforms developing with new releases each week and competing for viewers consideration, the pie is changing into bigger and there’s a bit for everybody.
Consequently, a lot of VFX businesses have sprung up. Mumbai-based Plexus Movement, finest recognized for his or her title credit for each the seasons of Netflix’s Sacred Video games (2018-’19), Gangs of Wasseypur and Indignant Indian Goddesses (2015), was additionally born in 2014. Extra just lately, Koffee With Karan (2004-’22) outsourced its credit score sequence to the Chennai-based Whoa Mama Design. Mumbai-based Harkat Studios, launched in 2017, has created title sequences for Bombay Begums (2021), Trial by Fireplace (2023) and Weapons and Gulaabs (2023), all of that are viewable on Netflix.
“We’ve carried out credit for 2 Tamil movies however they had been over six years in the past. Dharma Productions bought in contact with us after taking place to see our model movies and edits on social media. They had been taking an opportunity,” says Shaun D’Sa, co-founder and inventive head, Whoa Mama Design. He provides, “Karan (Johar) appreciated the ideas that we shared. He was eager on a red-carpet scene. We labored on the storyboard, scripts, choreography and set design, and shot the sequence on the YRF Studio in Mumbai.”
The early work of Vijesh Rajan, earlier than he based Plexus Movement, contains Gangs of Wasseypur, OK Kanmani, and MTV India’s The Dewarists (2011-’16) and Convey on the Evening (2012). With Plexus Movement, he went on to provide atmospheric title sequences for yet one more Kashyap movie Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016), moreover miniseries like Ghoul (2018) and Leila (2019).
Rajan’s strategy to Gangs of Wasseypur was novel and tried to offer a contact of a Western, albeit within the heartlands of India. “I noticed a lot grit and texture on set. I needed the sequence to replicate that and the credit arrange the story of the place and the individuals. The music needed to point out that it’s a harmful place to be, that the individuals are harmful. We determined to go along with a big textured typeface,” he says, recalling how they’d rub sheets of paper with the title textual content on the bottom for the rugged, aged look. “We’d crumple paper after which scan it. For over 10 days, at Kashyap’s workplace in Mumbai, we had been simply rubbing paper throughout completely different surfaces to get the fitting texture. No two frames seemed the identical or had the identical texture,” he shares.
“When Plexus was engaged on Netflix’s Decoupled, the administrators got here with a quick that clearly said the necessity for one thing recent for every episode. When a pair splits up, it’s not simply them, all their belongings get cut up up too. We got here up with eight executions of the title sequence. A distinct object within the opening credit of every of the eight episodes alludes to the separation by transferring away from its counterpart,” Rajan provides.
Sacred Video games, one other early piece of labor by Plexus, obtained rave evaluations for the music — by Alokananda Dasgupta — employed in its title credit. Right here, the mandala and the haunting music creates a palpable stress. “Every episode has its distinctive mandala with components from Hindu mythology embedded in it. It’s vibrant to start with after which the color begins to fade away. It signifies the underlying darkness that’s unleashed because the storyline progresses. We had been instructed it must have some angst. That’s after we began doing these sharp edits,” he says of the considering behind the sequence.
With the sequence, Rajan’s workforce tried to beat the system; particularly, the Skip Intro possibility on OTT platforms. They achieved this by creating title sequences that modified with each episode, a stratagem that they’d replicate for Decoupled in 2021. The Skip Intro characteristic works towards the animation artists. It additionally creates a brand new set of challenges, of bringing in selection with every episode. Lending the correct quantity of drama to the titles is vital; they need to not overshadow the precise content material or reveal spoilers. Titles seem at a quicker velocity these days — you’ll be able to search for the credit on-line and therefore the titles serve a extra aesthetic and fewer useful goal now. Nonetheless, Rajan believes that partaking credit are right here to remain. The skip possibility on OTT platforms will not be a deal-breaker. “It pressurises studios to be extra inventive,” he says.
Surging Forward
Studio Kokaachi’s journey with credit score sequences and comedian books isn’t going to finish anytime quickly. Their first Malayalam comedian sequence, the upcoming eight-part Idivettu, is “a heist story”, Pratheek says excitedly. “It’s a couple of boy who comes from a lineage of thieves and needs to develop as much as be the best thief on the planet. He turns into a thief however he isn’t excellent at it. When one other smarter, extra profitable thief exhibits up, he’s pressured to go to extraordinary lengths to show himself as the very best thief in his small city,” he provides, whereas attempting to not reveal the entire twists and turns within the ebook.
Greater than 9 years after they reclaimed the scary boogeyman of their childhood, the duo is setting the file straight. One other upcoming comedian, There’s No Such Factor Referred to as A Kokaachi, revolves across the monster. “The upcoming ebook has been scripted and the illustrations are being labored on. We’re aiming for a mid-2024 launch,” she provides.
There’s additionally Raja, a comic book ebook that Pratheek and Tina are writing collectively for the primary time. “The 40-page graphic narrative is impressed by Pratheek’s maternal grandmother and her canine,” says Tina, including that it’s slated to be unveiled in two months’ time.
Over the previous couple of years, their lives could have taken a extra filmi flip than that they had chalked out for themselves — they nonetheless can’t fairly wrap their heads round it – however the two insist that Bollywood calls for however, they’re publishers and storytellers first. Upcoming OTT tasks apart, Mixtape Vol. 4, they remind us, is ready to be born.