“I think Dadasaheb Phalke should be considered the father of Indian animation,” Ram Mohan told me back when I was interviewing him for my c...
“I think Dadasaheb Phalke should be considered the father of Indian animation,” Ram Mohan told me back when I was interviewing him for my college magazine. He explained how DG Phalke made the first animation clips when he used matchsticks and time-lapse techniques to film the growth of a pea plant. These clips helped Phalke get funding for his projects.
The year was 1994. I was 15 and already part of the Ram Mohan Biographics studio. I was fortunate to be accepted by its training programme – the first time classical animation was being taught in a studio environment.
Ajit Rao, the designer and conductor of the course, convinced Ram Mohan to enrol me. Soon enough, I was married to the art of animation and RMB. Not long after, I realised that my boss – this apparently benign but wickedly witty Yodaesque figure who was always sketching and doodling – was considered the “Father of Indian animation”.
Ram Mohan (August 26, 1931-October 11, 2019) was a chemistry graduate. He quit his post-graduate studies in 1956 to join the Films Division’s Cartoon Film Unit, set up as part of a United States Technical Aid programme. There had been animation films in the pre-independence era – mainly...
