Ram Mohan: the animator who trained a generation

Starting at the cartoon unit

Ram Mohan began his career in 1956 at the Cartoon Films Unit of the Films Division, the Government of India's film body. It was part of the larger Films Division, which made documentaries and short films for the government.

He spent about twelve years there. In 1968 he left to join Prasad Productions as head of its animation division, moving from government films into the private sector and taking charge of a team of his own.

Animation in Indian cinema

Mohan's work reached cinema audiences through some of the best-known filmmakers of the time. He created the title sequence for Satyajit Ray's Shatranj Ke Khilari and an animated sequence for Mrinal Sen's Hindi film Bhuvan Shome. For B.R. Chopra's Pati Patni Aur Woh in 1978 he made an animated song. His credits also include Biwi O Biwi, Do aur Do Paanch and Kaamchor.

In 1972 he set up his own company, Ram Mohan Biographics. Alongside film work, the studio made animated commercials for television and cinema.

Ramayana, Meena and Graphiti

Ram Mohan Biographics worked on the animated feature Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama, released in 1992. Mohan co-directed it with the Japanese filmmaker Yugo Sako, a collaboration between India and Japan on one of India's best-known epics.

In South Asia he is also remembered for Meena, the animated series that was very popular in the 1990s, especially in Bangladesh. When he died, UNICEF Bangladesh mourned him as the creator of Meena.

In 1995 Graphiti Multimedia was launched in Mumbai, and Mohan served as its chairman and chief creative officer. In 2006 he also started the Graphiti School of Animation. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri in 2014.

Ram Mohan died in Mumbai on 11 October 2019, at the age of 88. Film schools, studios and former students paid tribute to him, and several of them recalled learning animation from him.

The skills and habits that made the difference

The first was staying with the craft. Mohan worked in animation for more than sixty years, through a government unit, a private studio and his own companies. Animation rewards that kind of patience, because every second of film needs many careful drawings.

The second was range. He worked on film songs, title sequences, commercials, a television character and a feature film. Each format asks for different timing and storytelling, and moving between them kept his skills broad. A title sequence must set a mood in seconds, an advertisement must sell an idea in moments, and a feature film must hold attention for well over an hour.

The third was collaboration. Much of his best-known work was made with others, from leading Indian film directors to a Japanese co-director on Ramayana. An animator often serves someone else's story, and he did that for some of the most respected storytellers in Indian cinema.

The fourth was teaching. Reports at the time of his death noted that he had personally trained many of the leading professionals in Indian animation, and he founded a school so that more people could learn the craft. Much of his legacy lives on in the people he taught.