Punyakoti: First-ever Sanskrit animation film

Ace Kannada filmmaker GV Iyer was the only director who used to make movies in the Sanskrit language. Two of his feature films on spiritual themes — Adi Shankaracharya and Bhagavad Gita — have won multiple National Awards.

Now, yet another creator from Bengaluru, Ravi Shankar, who has more than 20 years of experience in multimedia and animated children’s movies, has come out with the world’s first-ever animation film in Sanskrit, titled Punyakoti.

A crowd-funded and crowd-sourced film, Punyakoti is the story of a cow that always speaks the truth. The film draws its influence from the epic Mahabharatam.

A hungry tiger comes across the cow called Punyakoti and decides to make a meal of her. Punyakoti convinces the tiger that she will return once she has fed her young calf waiting at home. She returns as promised, and seeing her honesty (despite having had a chance to escape), the tiger leaves her unhurt.

At the promo launch of the film in the city, Ravi Shankar said, “The story highlights truth and honesty and has a larger message to society about how human greed upsets the ecological balance. Sanskrit is one of the oldest languages — 5000 years old and it is our responsibility to preserve it, protect it from going extinct. The success of Punyakoti will motivate more such movies to be made.”

While maestro Ilayaraja composes the music, actress and director Revathy has lent her voice for the cow Punyakoti. Roger Narayanan of U Turn fame and Kannada scholar Narasimhamurthy have also dubbed for other characters.

Dubai-based artist Shereen Abraham has also come forward to help Ravi. She has created 20 artworks inspired by the film, which will be up for sale at the art exhibition in the city for two days. “The proceeds from the sales will go towards funding the post-production work of Punyakoti,” she reveals.