Karmachakra




Karmachakra is the story of an orphan girl trying to find her roots, revolving around mysteries about her past and present.

 

It is a mystery drama set in a fictional present-day India that draws inspiration from psychology, Hindu mythology, and cybertechnology.

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Karmachakra: Episode Zero, an 80-minute movie spanning the first arc of Karmachakra, is currently being produced.

 

We decided to release the first 20 minutes as a online for free, which you can watch below, plus lots more upcoming content!

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This page will feature more and more updates about the world, characters and cast of Karmachakra, and links to all original and associated content, including features and articles! All questions about production and release have been answered  on his  FAQ page.



FAQ Page 



Why did we disappear for two years?

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We struggled to find the right people to work on the animation production:

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The lack of scope for frame-by-frame animation in Indian shows means a serious lack of people developing this skill. As you know, till today most of the 2D animated content produced for Indian original shows is targeted towards the 4-7 age group, and involves simplistic character designs and computer-rigged animation. We were ambitious enough to stick with the manga art-style and the exact method of production of Japanese anime, all without any foreign collaboration.

There have been many brilliant artists who have offered to illustrate but not animate. Also, there have been many who accepted the challenge of animating in a style and method they are not used to, and learned in the process. But the few people who could brave the extreme rigours of anime production formed our core team and can tell you exactly how difficult making anime is.

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We struggled to find excellent voice artists to dub this:

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Those who watched our scratch demo 2 years ago will remember how we animated that with a team of 3 people and dubbed all the voices with the help of friends. It was an amateur production but it was something new and previously unattempted, so a lot of people were excited about it on Youtube, and at our panel at Delhi Comic Con 2017. It also ended up headlining Anima Sao Festival 2017. But we were working on something bigger, and developed a screenplay and character designs.

A few months later, we were noticed by a circle of prominent Bengali film stars who recognized potential in Karmachakra and to our delight, offered to dub for the movie. They had full support for the Indian anime community, and saw a future in a new kind of content that has millions of Indian fans but has never been produced solely by Indian citizens.

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Where and when will Karmachakra release? And what will release?

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Our current production is Karmachakra : Episode Zero, an ~80-minute movie to mark the beginning of the franchise. The trailer can be found on all our social profiles. The production of the movie is 75% complete and we are trying our absolute best to finish it by mid-2020. We will announce the exact date of completion when possible.

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In the meantime, we have also shared our award-winning pilot episode (first ~20 minutes) of the movie on our social profiles for free for you to watch. We want to show our love for the community by breaking the norms and revealing exclusive content directly to fans even before release. You are our lifeline.

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We are still struggling to find platforms to release this. We cannot release this without the help of our fans.

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Over several months, we have been in talks with every major OTT service who broadcast in India. Since theaters are only likely to open after September 2020 because of the pandemic, we are trying to release it on OTT services first.

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How can you help?

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We were delighted both when Dragonball Super: Broly and more recently Weathering With You were given the green light for screening in India, thanks to superb fan-driven campaigns at a scale like never before. But considering the huge effort it took for fans for the screening of big releases from established names, guess how tough it's going to be for us? We are trying to bring this content to you despite all odds, and we need the highest level of support from you.

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Take this FAQ and use it however you please. Make videos, screenshot it, translate it, share it, talk about it. All you really have to do is help us spread the word, and who knows where that will take it. Our content is your content. Go bonkers with it, nothing's stopping you.

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If we release the whole movie online for free, our studio will die out even before it begins life. It's quite simple, nobody has ever worked for this studio for free and never will. Everybody was paid right from day one (more than 3 years ago) by the producer, who himself has made absolutely no money from this production as it stands today. Giving it away for free means no money and resources to continue putting stuff out there for you guys. Basically, no studio anymore. We don't want that. We want to keep bringing you newer and better content and put India on the world map for anime.

Anime production is an expensive affair, and the funds required to simply break even on a production of this level are impossible through things like YouTube's video monetization, or Crowdfunding, which in our country has worked mostly in the short film / low-budget film situations, so Wishberry/Patreon is out of the question currently, as much as we would have loved to take that route.

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Will it be dubbed in other languages?

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The original cast includes the very best of the Bengali film industry. We would love to dub it in Hindi, English and other languages in the future, and for each language, we plan to give you a cast on the same level as the original. And this plan will be easier to execute once we get a platform to fund us and broadcast our content.

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BONUS ROUND:

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'Indian anime? Why call it anime if it isn't made in Japan?'

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Does serving a recognizably Japanese dish at a restaurant in India make it an Indian dish?

That said, we would love it if there was ever a word for manga-style works made by India while the Indian scene for it matures some more. Or we could continue, in the same way we say 'Indian hip-hop'.

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'How is this the first Indian anime?'

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Some facts: Ramayana and Batu Gaiden were both collaborations with Japan. Roughly put, character design done in India, and animation done in Japan. Unlike such productions, every single process of our production is carried out by Indian citizens residing in India. All animation is done in-house. No foreign collaborations whatsoever. Some more facts: We genuinely love and respect both productions mentioned above.

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See you around!

मिलते हैं!

দেখা হবে!

じゃあね!

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~Studio Durga Team



Character Lineup






Character List 


1. Ganga (child)


2. Rick(child)


3. Ganga



4. Rick


5.Arka

6. Dilip



7.Dr. Roy


8.Father Gomes


9. Gautam


10.Ghoshal



11. Madhavi


12.Meghna


13. Susmita(Mita)




14. Mrs. Roy


15. Prof. Siddharth(Sid)


16.Rimli


17.Ronnie

18. Surjo


19.Vivek





‘Karmachakra’ director urges Anime fans in India to vote for their choice of language and streaming platform for the film


Anime fans in India, your wait is going to be over soon! Studio Durga, India’s first anime studio who had created a stir in the Indian Anime community with their first ever independent Indian anime project, Karmachakra, is now gearing up to launch it soon on an OTT platform.  Last Saturday, 4 July, the studio recently conducted a poll/survey inviting fans who have supported them till date, to choose from two major OTT players (Hoichoi and Disney+Hotstar) to stream the 80 minute animated feature. In a video, Studio Durga founder and CEO Rajorshi Basu has thanked fans for their support and have urged them to vote in which language and on which streaming platform the fans would like to watch Karmachakra. (Originally, the anime feature is in Bengali) 



 


Speaking on the poll/survey, Basu told AnimationXpress, “Some of the streaming platforms we talked to were keen on taking up Karmachakra, but they need that extra assurance that a completely new project such as this has enough audience, as they are mostly unaware of the huge fan base for anime in India. So this was a survey for our audience to voice their demand on the basis of both language and platform. The total number of votes matter more than anything, and any participation will help us immensely.” Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown that followed, the cinema halls and multiplexes have been shut till further notice. As the country still grapples with the virus and the exponential rise in the number of active cases daily, the possibility of reopening of theaters in the near future is blurring. Hence, many Bollywood filmmakers are taking their films directly for an OTT release. The trend started with Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana starrer Gulabo Sitabo premiering on Amazon Prime Video.  






































Lately, Disney+Hotstar announced a new segment Disney+Hotstar multiplex which will premiere seven big Bollywood films on Fridays between July to October this year, starting with late Sushant Singh Rajput-starrer Dil Bechara on 24 July. Other movies include Akshay Kumar-Kiara Advani’s Laxmmi Bomb, Alia Bhatt-Aditya Roy Kapur-starrer Sadak 2, Abhishek Bachchan’s The Big Bull, Vidyut Jammwal’s Khuda Haafiz, Ajay Devgn-Sanjay Dutt’s Bhuj and Kunal Khemu’s Lootcase.  It’s a possibility that Karmachakra might add to this list, being the first anime film to be premiering on the Disney owned streaming platform (as of now Hotstar has received more votes in comparison to Hoichoi).  The film is majorly completed and is going through the last in-production phase, and simultaneously post-production is about halfway through. As Basu shared, there are numerous changes and enhancements to the original material, so all things considered, there might be certain delays in production. The Studio Durga team has worked tirelessly to make it see the light of the day and has even funded Karmachakra out of their pockets. “The project has been self-funded till now, and will continue to be till completion, which is very soon. After it is licensed, I hope to profit or at least break even, so I can continue to run the studio and work on further projects that are planned,” said Basu.  As the lockdown disrupted normalcy in the workspace, though animation as a medium thrived during this time, it had its own challenges -“The lockdown was a real challenge in terms of management and infrastructure, but thankfully we were prepared and planned operations accordingly beforehand, so there was no considerable slowdown in the production as we worked remotely.” The synopsis of Karmachakra reads – The story of an orphan girl trying to find her roots, revolving around mysteries about her past and present. A mystery drama set in a fictional present-day India that draws inspiration from psychology, mythology, and cyber-technology. Directed by Basu himself, the voice cast includes the talents of noted film actors Swastika Mukherjee, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Mir Afsar Ali, Parno Mittra, Swaroopa Ghosh, Tanusree Shankar, late Santu Mukherjee, Anik Dutta, Alaknanda Roy, Shantilal Mukherjee, Barun Chanda and Shamik Sinha. Karmachakra is a labour of love, passion and hard work Basu has urged everyone to let their hard work entertain them. “Whichever option you choose to vote for, please do vote and ask everyone you know to cast their vote, because the total votes matter. Being the first project of this kind, this is your chance to make it happen. Karmachakra wouldn’t have been possible without your support, and this is the best way you can help us bring the movie to you. The link can only be opened through the YouTube app or on desktop; and can be found on the Community tab of our channel,” concluded he.  Karmachakra has also won three awards, including ‘Best Animation Short’ at three awards at the Independent Shorts Awards (ISA), based in Los Angeles in March 2020.