Breaking Barriers with Ninaad Kulkarni

On a wintry Saturday evening in Mumbai, I sat to have a heart-to-heart with the award-winning Ninaad Kulkarni, visionary animator, filmmaker and Forbes India’s 30-Under-30 winner for 2019!

His animated documentary ‘KCLOC’ has received worldwide recognition from Official Selections at 136 Film Festivals across the globe and has won 29 awards.
We spoke at length on how he came to be where he is today and his perspective on what it would take for a young, aspiring designer/animator from India to become successful.

Read on for what was a humble, yet enlightening conversation with Ninaad Kulkarni.

1. Why did you choose this profession in the first place?

As the Forbes article mentioned, although cricket was my passion for 15-16 odd years of my life, I had to seriously evaluate the prospect and risk of professionally pursuing a sport in India. My first inspiration to become an artist was my mother, who did her MFA and BFA from the Sir JJ School of Arts. She has been teaching art to high school students for over 25 years and often comes up with an artistic solution to a problem with design thinking methodology. I also remember asking dad to help me buy Autodesk Maya a few years ago and I was shocked at how expensive the software was. This made me realize that computer graphics was some serious business.

2. Why did you feel you needed a masters to pursue your interests?

After studying animation film production at the NID, I always wanted to get global exposure and a master’s degree was the only way to go considering that my undergraduate studies taught me to think like a filmmaker. I wanted to expand on it, get professional experience from where animation originated and study where the great minds at Pixar learnt their art. With this view I did my MFA in Computer Art at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Also, I won a scholarship that took me to Switzerland which exposed me to the fact that animation was immense outside India.

4. Did you already know that this is going to be a high-end film to be showcased at film festivals?

I have been asked this a lot at festivals. There was no strategy in place and I never planned for this film to be anything other than an exploratory experience. This is a film without any real beginning, middle or end so, come to think of it, had I aimed for success I probably would not have got here. I also truly believe that when you make an art piece, you need to be there with the work to represent it. At festivals, if the artist is not there to present his work the value of the project diminishes. With the last hit of the ‘render’ button I thought my work was done but the real task began only then – taking it to film festivals to talk about it helped me process and reflect it off people.

5. How did you get associated with Forbes for the 30 under 30? Did they approach you or did you have to apply?

Forbes has a nomination period when they actively seek nominations by self or reference. Interestingly, in my case, one of my old school teachers nominated me and was asked questions about me and my accolades and even then, I was still reluctant to believe that I would ever be selected. But soon later, I got a response from Forbes and it led to be being on the cover which was a lovely yet humbling experience!

6. What about being in India? Did you face problems while deciding to pursue design? Do you think other aspirants might?

Culturally speaking, a lot of Indian parents may be conservative, but I am grateful that my parents supported me throughout my decision-making process. I feel that design/animation/filmmaking are rewarding career choices that young Indians can follow but only if they are truly passionate about it. To be frank, this is a hardworking industry without a “confirmed” life. A successful artist must be absolutely dedicated to their art and should not harbour any self-doubt while pursuing their passion.

7. You have already won multiple awards but do you see an animation barrier of sorts in India? Do you see yourself being here and breaking it?

This is a tough question because I have been away from India for a while now. India is unparalleled in the depth, breadth and variety of storytelling that one can come up with. But the west is better in providing the technological expertise and support. India can be challenging to someone intent on being independent and not following the crowd. I am unsure of what the future may bring but currently I would like to use the stories from India and the technical expertise of the west to bring these narratives to life.

8. Do you see India as having its own South Park or Simpsons sometime?

India’s animation industry is already impressive though I am unsure of how acceptance has trickled down culturally. I mean, South Park is uniquely part of American culture and multiple age groups have created a culture to watch this. India watches a lot of anime/manga too but for something totally homegrown, I feel a visual language of Indian animation must develop. It would be lovely to see dedicated animators in India graduating from Indian schools and doing their own thing there. But though we have the audience, we still need quite some technical expertise.  

9. What advice do you have for young aspirants in the design/filmmaking space?

Always remember where you came from, no matter where you go. Rooting oneself to true stories from personal experiences has a greater impact. Making sure it’s not a gimmick and that it truly comes from within will assuredly bring success, sooner or later. Getting a good education and being inspired by other people helps make oneself adaptable in a very relevant way.

This down-to-earth conversation with Ninaad helped me personally connect with a young visionary on an incredibly human level and the New York sunlight streaming in from my laptop screen suddenly felt a bit brighter.

Do let us know how you were inspired by this talk in a comment below.

To know more about Ninaad’s work, click here to visit his website.