Bhubaneswar, March 12: Mumbai-based art designer Sukant Panigrahy’s organisation Muskaan plans to produce a musical based on children called Tunni Ki Kahani.

Panigrahy, who always comes up with something creative, had exhibited Kapala, an art installation of a human skull made out of e-waste, at Bring Your Own Film Festival (BYOFF) in Puri last month.

In the forthcoming musical, the protagonist, Tunni, will be more like Alice in Wonderland with other co-actors playing animals, birds and trees. The acting workshops for the play will commence in April when the summer vacations begin.

Television actor and director Gopal Tewari will be directing the stage play. Later, the script will be moulded for cinematic adaptation.

The play will have a message about environmental conservation which will be delivered in form of poems.

“We have been working on this for more than a year now. Since, not many musicals have been made in India, this will be a treat for kids by kids,” said Panigrahy.

While 20 to 30 children will take part in the acting session, around 100 kids will attend the workshop that teaches various subjects such as music, art and costume making.

Muskaan is a cultural organisation formed by Panigrahy way back in 1998, when he was working as an assistant on the film sets. Muskaan has been conducting workshops for children, particularly those belonging to the deprived section of the society. The idea behind the workshops is to engage the young ones in more creative and artistic activities.

“Different art forms are not given much value in the syllabus. Thus in pursuit of a career, artistic skills of a child become dormant. Such workshops create awareness in the society and give us a chance to interact with children. It is a learning exchange,” said Panigrahy, once a naïve village boy from Aska, Ganjam and now a name to reckon with in Bollywood. Panigrahy’s brilliant set designing for films such as Chak De India, Aaja Nachle and Dev D were much appreciated.