Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray’s Goopi and Bagha are all set to go to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The characters created by Bengali writer Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury and immortalised on celluloid by his grandson Satyajit Ray, now star in an animated movie which will premiere at TIFF.

The 78-minute Hindi film titled Goopi Gawaiiya Bagha Bajaiiya, made at a budget of approximately 2 crores, will have its international premiere in the ‘TIFF Kids’ category. The story is about two “wise fools”, Goopi and Bagha, who bump into each other in a forest after being banished from their homes and their fate takes hilarious twists.

The project incepted in May 2010 when animator Shilpa Ranade was doing the visuals for Gulzar’s Hindi translation of the Bengali short story Goopi Gayne Bagha Bayne and found the story perfect for a feature-length animated film. She approached Nandita Das, then the chairperson of the Children’s Film Society of India, with a detailed synopsis and that set the ball rolling.

The film blends puppetry, painting and poetry to create a narrative, which is a tad different from the original. Soumitra Ranade has written the screenplay. The musical score of the film has been composed by Three Brothers and a Violin.