Have you walked into a show of The Good Dinosaur this week and seen a seven-minute short called Sanjay’s Super Team playing before it? Created by Sanjay Patel, an Indian-origin director at the animation department at PIXAR, Sanjay’s Super Team is a delightful film showing a young Indian boy’s confusion about religion and roots as he grows up in the US. An email chat with Sanjay — who has worked on PIXAR biggies like Monsters University, Ratatouille, The Incredibles and Toy Story 2.
P.S. Sanjay’s Super Team has been nominated, alongside nine other films, for an Oscar next February. It is currently playing in cinemas.
How did Sanjay’s Super Team come about and what was the thought behind it?
I was at a crossroads with my career at PIXAR. Having spent the previous decade working by day at PIXAR and at night writing and illustrating picture books and graphic novels based on Hindu mythology, it felt like time to decide on one or the other. It was a hard decision, but I decided to forego the safety and security of PIXAR to pursue my personal work.
This is when the studio approached me to bring my personal work to work and try and develop it as a short. Yet I was very reluctant as I was sceptical whether the studio would really give me freedom to creatively pursue material that was both so personal and so culturally specific. It was only after talking to my dad and directly asking him what I should do, did I finally decide to try and develop/direct this project, and PIXAR absolutely supported the creative direction.
How prestigious is it for Sanjay’s Super Team to be screened as a short before The Good Dinosaur?
I am thrilled that it is being screened with The Good Dinosaur, and even more so that audiences all over the world will be able to see the short and hopefully relate to it on some level. I grew up not having any idols or cartoons that looked like me, and I am glad with this short we have the opportunity to change that.
The short is about the conflicts between cultures — an Indian boy growing up in the US — that you faced during your childhood. How would you describe your central protagonist Sanjay?
Little Sanjay in the short is very much based on my experiences of growing up — I was firmly rooted in the culture of the West, while my dad was still very much in the East. I didn’t fully understand my dad until I grew up and started to learn about Hindu mythology and its practices.
I hope that this short, that introduces Indian-American characters into the PIXAR fold, will pique people’s interest and that they might want to go and do their own research on Indian culture.
The short also touches upon religion. How tricky was it handling something like that?
Although religion is present, the heart of the story is a personal one. That said, I have done my research and know much about Hinduism. I wanted to honour the deities I was depicting, drawing on traditions like classical Indian dance. We really tried to stay true to who these deities are and what they represent.
Do you think that Sanjay’s Super Team will pave the way for more interest in characters from the subcontinent in animation?
I love that PIXAR supported me in telling this story and I hope more stories like this and other cultures continue to make their way to global audiences.
How do you look back at your years with PIXAR and will we see you direct a full-length film for them sometime in the future?
I have been extremely lucky to work at PIXAR for almost 20 years now, and having the opportunity to make this short film has been unbelievable. Now that it is coming out into the world, I am looking forward to focusing back on contributing to other PIXAR feature projects already in the works, and to come back to my own personal work and art.
Have you seen Sanjay’s Super Team and liked it/not liked it? Tell t2@abp.in
