C alcutta couple Pradipto Sengupta and Pramita Mukherjee are living a dream. The animation artists who studied the art in the city, now have an Oscar-nominated movie on their CV — Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which has just bagged an Academy Award nomination for Animated Feature Film at The 95th Academy Awards to be held on March 12. TT chatted with Pradipto and Pramita about their experience of working on the film and their journey so far.
Congratulations on being a part of the Oscar-nominated Puss in Boots: The Last Wish! Has the feeling sunk in yet?
Pramita and Pradipto: Over the moon. Surreal feeling. Has it sunk in? Yes and no! Even though we watched it 100 times while making it, when we watched this one in Regal LA Live theatre during our LA premiere, we knew we had a very special movie here. It is undoubtedly the best animated movie of the year 2022, and one of the finest animated movies of all time. So, the hope for the nomination was always there. And, no! We started our animation career in India back in 2007. At that time neither of us thought we would be working in Hollywood, nor that we would be part of an Oscar-nominated movie.
In fact, we are the only two animation artists from Calcutta to have worked on this movie along with a bunch of extremely talented artists from around the world.
Tell us all about your experience of working on it. When did you know you were on board?
Pramita: I wrapped up Croods 2 around June 2020, which is another masterpiece from DreamWorks and got cast on this one in July 2020. I was one of the few development artists to start in the CFX department on this movie during the early stage and was there till the very end around August 2022. Devoting two years to an Oscar-nominated project like Puss In Boots is an incredible experience.
Pradipto: For me, this movie was going to be the most memorable for many reasons. My first lead artist credit on an Oscar-nominated movie. Also during this movie, I was down with severe Covid and was almost about to die. Felt pretty much like Puss in his last life. Apart from my family, the team and the studio were so supportive during my recovery.
What was the most enjoyable part?
Pramita: I was fortunate to work very closely with the director (Joel Crawford), production designer and the VFX supervisor of the movie. My most notable contribution was costume animation and fur motion development for Kitty voiced by Salma Hayek. The other character that I was responsible for was Papa Bear’s CFX developments, voiced by Ray Winstone and delivered over 125 shots in the movie, along with the massive environmental simulation developments that you would notice in the entire movie. The most memorable part was paying tribute to my father who wanted me to become an animator. I was fortunate to get a screen credit including my father’s name “Pramita Prashanta Mukherjee”, whom I lost to cancer in 2020.
Pradipto: I was cast as the Lead CFX artist in the movie. The cape is what defines Puss, voiced by Antonio Banderas, and I worked on setting up the cape animation for the movie. I also did the costume model and motion development for the main villain, Jack Horner voiced by John Mulaney.
Are you a fan of the 2011 film that was also nominated for the Oscars? Was that more pressure working on the new film, given that the team had tall standards to meet?
Pramita and Pradipto: Yes! The 2011 movie was indeed a great one and it is always challenging to live up to expectations on such a great franchise, but whenever any sequel is made, the intention is always to make it better. There are so many great things about this new Puss in Boots 2 movie. There is experimentation with visual style. Every frame looks like a gorgeous image from a graphic novel. There is experimentation of multiple animation styles and overall storytelling. It is a story for all ages which captures death, the importance of life, friendship and family. It also has a tiny moment that captures a panic attack.
There are so many life lessons delivered with great humour. I am sure everyone would fall in love with Wolf and Perrito, the most adorable dog voiced by Harvey Guillen.
Working with DreamWorks must have been a dream come true! You have been with them for the last five years. What has this journey been like?
Pradipto: Surreal. I am a DreamWorks fanboy. Even though I always wanted to be an animation filmmaker, Madagascar 1 from DreamWorks animation was that turning point in my life. As I was watching that movie, I realised all I want is to do animation. But honestly when I started, I never ever thought someday I would be working at DreamWorks Animation in LA. I joined DreamWorks LA in 2018 to work on Abominable and The Boss Baby 2 before Puss in Boots 2. It has been a long journey which started in Calcutta with learning animation from Toonz Webel Animation Academy.
Pramita: Fifteen years back in Calcutta when I started pursuing animation as my career at the age of 19, I couldn’t imagine myself even thinking of working in Dreamworks LA. The journey has been really long and full of struggles and challenges at every phase, especially for a young girl trying to step up in this industry back then was nearly impossible but as the name says, DreamWorks. It’s truly an absolute dream to be able to work and create real magic sitting in Burbank. As kids, we would often see Burbank at the end of most animation shows on Cartoon Network. Burbank and its surroundings are like the Mecca of animation which houses some of the biggest studios such as DreamWorks, Disney, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros, Cartoon Network.
Where did you work before this?
Pramita: I started working at Crest Animation Studios in Mumbai as an intern. It has been a long journey since then. There were not many options those days and most of the work that used to come to India was outsourced TV series. I also got severely impacted by the 2008 recession. During that time I did not have a job for almost six months and had to survive in Mumbai with my meagre savings. But after that, I never looked back. I have worked at various studios in Mumbai and Bangalore for almost a decade and then moved to London to work at DNEG, the studio that made Brahmastra. I was the Lead Creature FX artist on the Gal Gadot-starring Wonder Woman 2...
Pradipto: I always wanted to become a filmmaker, and I love making animated movies. My first job was in Big Animation, Pune, where I worked on the Little Krishna TV series and then moved to Mumbai to work on India’s first stereoscopic animated movie Alpha and Omega for Crest and Lionsgate. In 2017 I moved to China, to work at Base Animation which was working on its first animation movie. Over there I helped in training a lot of local artists and worked on Wish Dragon, the Netflix superhit animation movie of 2021.
What are your dreams for yourselves?
Pramita and Pradipto: One of our immediate dreams is to bring world-class animation education to Calcutta and create more awareness about animation filmmaking. The other thing that we would really support and encourage is gender equality in our industry.
More about the duo
Name: Pramita Mukherjee
Age: 35
From: Calcutta
Studies animation at: Toonz Webel Academy, Calcutta
School: Aditya Academy, Calcutta
Fave animation films: How To Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Coco, Puss In Boots, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole
Fave animation characters: Toothless and Po
Fave pastime: I am an avid traveller and I did solo female backpacking to all of Europe and the UK. Otherwise, I love watching classic Bengali movies. I am a Women in Animation mentor, where I have coached more than 50 aspiring women professionals and students from the US and Europe on how to enter, thrive and survive in the animation industry (https://womeninanimation. org/our-mission/).
Name: Pradipto Sengupta
Age: 37
From: Calcutta
Studied animation at: Toonz Webel Academy, Calcutta
School: Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Purulia
Fave animation films: Puss in Boots: Last Wish, How To Train Your Dragon, Ratatouille and Spider-Man: Into the SpiderVerse
Fave animation characters: Po from Kung Fu Panda and Long from Wish Dragon
Fave pastime: I animate in my free time too. Otherwise, I love cooking, travelling, reading and mostly watching movies. I am otherwise co-secretary for the Visual Effects Society- LA Section (https://www.vesglobal. org/about/).
