Rajiv Chilaka. (DC Image)

With the advancement in Artificial Intelligence, Rajiv Chilaka believes the focus is now back on storytelling, and it raises the value of the story. "AI is here to stay," says the founder of Green Gold Animations, the Hyderabad studio behind Chhota Bheem. "AI is, in fact, a boon for creative people," as he sees it.

A newly graduated person with "a creative brain" no longer needs "tonnes of money or a producer"; one computer and a few months may do.

“In recent times we have seen a lot of big budget films not making an impact because they were so engrossed in making it larger than life. They forgot the storytelling. Even we make the same mistakes when we get carried away trying to make a fabulous animation.”

Another trend that has surfaced since the advent of AI - Micro dramas - get a similarly sympathetic hearing. "Very addictive," he agrees. "Attention span absolutely has reduced," and the format, watched while "waiting for a car or a cab," is "perfectly suited" to that. In India, he thinks, it hasn't fully taken off yet. But "It's just a matter of time."


The engineer who wanted to tell stories

Chilaka is Hyderabadi by birth. Like many of his generation, he says, the choices were narrow: "either you study engineering or you become a doctor. So it was very automatic." He went to the US, did a master's in computer science and worked briefly as a software engineer. "I was good at it," he says, "but I didn't feel good doing that."

For Chilaka, the turn came on his first day at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, where, he says, orientation included the news that Walt Disney had once had a studio in the city. Chilaka went on to read Disney's life story and decided that if he could achieve even 10 per cent of what Disney did with limited technology, it would count for something. He enrolled at the Academy of Art in San Francisco to learn animation, scriptwriting and storyboarding, and realised he was "working way harder than I used to work in my normal life." That, he decided, was the sign.

He returned to India towards the end of 2000. The early years were unglamorous: there were no ready teams and very few trained animators, so "anyone you found with a skill set, you had to train." Green Gold, which he says is nearly 22 years old, took shape slowly.

He also describes himself as a storyteller from childhood, the boy who watched a film and then re-enacted it, action sequences included, for friends who hadn't.


Building a Bheem

The character that made the studio is borrowed from the Mahabharata, which Chilaka calls a story of "complex storytelling". The plan, he says, was to "take a complex story and tell it in a simple way", giving the attributes of the epic's Bhima to a village boy.

The appeal, in his telling, is almost anatomical. "Every boy likes to punch the wall and break it. Why? I don't know," he says. "But that's inherent in nature." A boy, he adds, "wants to be strong because he wants to protect his mother, his parents. He's got in his DNA that I am a protector."

It is a simple, classic picture of the childhood hero, and the one Bheem was built around. It sits alongside a broader wish: "In India we need more heroes, people who are standing up." He recalls reading about an army man who fought off armed robbers on a train, and says children should be inspired "to fight for the wrong," though "not just pick a fight on the street."

Strength, he adds, is not the show's only lesson. In a boat race in the show, he says, "the team that prepared more wins, not the guy who is stronger," because the winners planned, calculated and practised.

Careful what goes in

Asked about the controversies that can follow religious and cultural elements in storytelling, Chilaka spoke in general terms. "With bouquets come brickbats," he says, adding that “it's always more exciting when there are also people who are opposing any idea you have, because no idea is perfect.” And he is open to these criticisms because he and his team at the studio go at it with an attitude for introspection and learning.

Chilaka is candid that the studio took early criticism for animation quality, made by animators with "only three months of experience" and compared with the best shows in the world. "It is not fair, but we understand," he says.

Today, he says, the studio's work sets global standards. Chilaka says Mighty Little Bheem, which premiered on Netflix, set a benchmark in preschool content and pushed international companies to raise their own quality for that age group.

On children, he is firm. "Age-appropriate content only should be shown to them," he says, because "what goes into their delicate minds" can have a lasting impact. The studio decides on its audience at the start, preschool, children or adults, and, he says, keeps violence away from the young; platforms' own review teams also flag problems.

He also looks to parents, who he says should set restrictions on devices: "It's easy to set up on any device today."


Why Hyderabad

When I asked him why he chose Hyderabad to be the city to start his storytelling career, the answer was straight: it is home. It's also infrastructure, universities, and an ecosystem of multinationals where growth is not merely an expectation.

He sees the direction of travel reversing. "We used to always see American companies setting up offices in India," he says. In the next few decades, he expects companies "starting in Hyderabad, going global." Hyderabad and Telangana, in his words, are "poised for telling global stories."

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