If you think that India doesn’t have its own superheroes in the league of Superman, Spiderman and He-man, you may be right, but not absolutely. Action-packed mythological characters don’t let one feel the non-existence of any superheroes, says Arnab Chaudhuri, director of animation movie Arjun: The Warrior Prince, which is set for release today.
The debutant director says that the action-packed animation film, presented by Walt Disney and UTV Motion Pictures, starts with Arjun as a young boy, and explores how he uses his skills to fight and defeat evil. From the dusty plains of Hastinapur to the icy peaks of the Himalayas, Arjun: The Warrior Prince is the story of a man discovering what it takes to be a hero.
But what fascinated him about Arjun that he chose to make him the focus of his film? “I always wanted to make an action film with a single hero. And the greatest action drama that instantly comes to mind is Mahabharata. It was quite easy to settle on Arjun as he’s possibly the greatest action hero of all times. Legend knows him as an archer of unwavering focus, the soldier who fought a battle in his own heart before taking up arms against his enemy,” he says.
“To me, this is the untold story of Arjun, hero of Mahabharata. A precocious talent plunged from boyhood and innocence into a murky world of deceit and betrayal, coming of age to become the most powerful warrior of his time,” he explains, adding that the 90-minute film will interest viewers across all age groups.
According to Arnab there is a sense of ownership with mythology. “They belong to everyone. Everyone knows about these characters, and the magic happens when the filmmaker, with his creativity, brings out something new,” he says.
“Animation as a powerful medium opens to the filmmaker an unlimited world of creativity to experiment and explore. And it’s only your imagination that limits the possibilities,” adds Arnab, who has produced animation works for Cartoon Network.