By Sreya Basu
Kolkata, April 23 (IANS) Kolkatans will be able to view a full-length Bengali animation film this summer. Produced jointly by Elecom Animation Academy, a Kolkata-based animation training institute, and Mumbai’s Fiesta Entertainment, the 82-minute film is based on ‘Lal Kalo’ (Red Black), a popular children’s novel by Girindrashekhar Basu.

“‘Lal Kalo’ is based on racism between red and black ants. The black ant Krishna and red ant Lohit fall in love. Provoked by the villain Ghun, the red and black ants start a war against each other. Through this film we are trying to spread the message of unity among kids,” Elecom’s chief executive officer R.D. Malik told IANS.

“It took us about two years and Rs.5 crore (Rs.50 million) to complete this film - our dream project. The characters have been sketched manually, following the classical style, by a team of 80 animators. This process is more expensive and time consuming than the digital method, but the image quality is higher.

“There are six songs in the film sung by prominent singers like Ustad Rashid Khan, Shaan, and Shreya Ghosal. The post-production, including dubbing, has been done at Fiesta’s studio in Mumbai,” said Malik.

Set to be released in May, the film will also be dubbed in Hindi.

“To celebrate the success of our first film we have already decided to make its sequel. Besides, our next film will be a 3-D classical one based on Dwarkaprasad Chetri’s ‘Bhootnath’,” added Malik.