Hanuman stars in first animated feature film

It's a bird. It's a plane. No! It's ... the Hindu deity Hanuman?

While movie stars often achieve mythical status in film-crazy India, Hanuman, the star of India's first animation feature film, is a genuine deity drawn from the Hindu pantheon.

In promotional clips being aired on Indian TV, Hanuman in an orange loincloth, gold armlets and anklets, with his long hair held in place with gold beads wields a mace as he battles fire-breathing dragons and ferocious demons.

"Hanuman is like a super-superhero. We have tried to go beyond Superman," director V.G. Samant said on Thursday. "Which superhero can leap up and touch the sun or move mountains with one hand?"

Samant, along with about 60 animators and researchers, studied Hindu scriptures for more than two years to adapt them to the celluloid for the 90-minute film, released yesterday in India in Hindi- and English-language versions. His team had plenty of experience animating stories.

European, Australian and American production houses have for years sent detailed scripts to India to have local graphic artists and animators sketch, paint and digitalise the content.

A 26-minute animated episode costs from $80,000 (Dh293,600) to $100,000 (Dh367,000) in India, compared with about $250,000 (Dh917,500) in the US, Samant said.

India's animation production and special effects industry is estimated to be worth around $666 million (Dh2.44 billion) a year and has grown by about 30 per cent in the past few years, according to a study in March by the trade group Confederation of Indian Industry.

But no Indian animated movies have been produced. At the box office, foreign animated hits have lagged behind the song-and-dance blockbusters churned out in the country, said Komal Nata, who runs the trade guide Film Information.

"Indians are not captivated by animation," Nata said. "But if Hanuman touches them, people may change."

In a bid to spread the animation genre's popularity, the monkey deity was selected as a film superhero because of his local and foreign appeal, said Sandeep Bhargav, chief operating officer of Sahara One Motion Pictures, which produced and distributed the film.

The English version will be released overseas later in the year, Bhargav said, adding that this should help draw in audiences in the United States, Britain, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, countries with large South Asian communities.

Creators said they wanted to draw on homegrown influences.

"Indian kids are so tuned in to Superman and Spider-Man, they've forgotten superheroes in their own backyard," said Bhargav.

Hanuman, revered by India's Hindu majority, is known for his wisdom, superhuman strength and loyalty to the god Rama.

Like Hollywood superheroes, Hanuman protects the weak.