The Ocean on Top of Our Mountain

Geoscience animation outreach project for children of the Indian subcontinent, celebrating and sharing its unique geological past as common heritage to all residents.

Introduction

The characters of the film:

The filmmaking process has started from April 2024. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists funded the major project cost; the writer of this film Professor Nigel Hughes, University of California, Riverside -Earth and Planetary Sciences also personally funded some works for the film.

Nusrat

A 10 year old Indian girl

Gutishuti

A trilobite

Clan of Isisauruses

Sanajeh the ancient snake

Duration of the film 20 minutes

Students of Animation Department of Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath are working as interns for the film apart from five professional artists, majority of them are contemporaries of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute. The film is in bengali language with subtitles in hindi and english

Basilosaurus

This Promotional Video presents a synopsis of The Ocean on Top of Our Mountain, an animated series that will tell the true story of the Indian subcontinent’s dramatic northward, 9000km journey from the southern hemisphere to ultimately crash into Asia and form the Himalaya. The story is narrated to Nushrat, a village girl, by Gutishuti, an inhabitant of the ancient ocean that once bordered northern India, who magically returns to life to share her story. Together Gutishuti and Nushrat witness key events during the epic voyage, meet the subcontinent’s various residents who lived during the journey, and learn about why the subcontinent’s past is the most spectacular of any part of our planet.

The series will transmit the science-based story of the subcontinent’s past to its children in an exciting, visual way that can be completely understood without requiring reading ability. It will be produced in Hindi/Urdu, Bengali and English versions, with an animation and audio style that reflects the artistic traditions of the subcontinent.

As the particular target audience is children in rural communities whose may have experience of finding fossils themselves, the series will be made freely available digitally across the subcontinent. Style and content will be subject to further refinement for scientific accuracy.

The project is a collaboration between the University of California – Riverside and animators associated with Dristikon Arthouse. This promotional video has been sponsored by the Association of Petroleum Geologists – India, the Paleontological Society, the Geological Society of America, IGCP668, the US National Science Foundation, and Fulbright

It was conceived at the Chitrakatha Festival of Student Design held at the National Institute of Design, Vijayawada and organised by Director Sekhar Mukherjee. It is directed by NID-AP animator Trisha Banerjee and her colleague Debraj Sarkar, and involves the work of NID-AP students.

Character Design: Nusrat

Nusrat is a Himalayan village girl. She is curious about life. She found Gutishuti very interesting and went on a journey with her to understand the earth.

This is a ‘work-in-progress’ storyboard for the teaser. The aim is to make the audience very much interested about the fascinating history of the earth, that is probably much more radical and impactful than any fiction.

First storyboard during Chitrakatha'19

first storyboard during Chitrakatha’19, in the workshop with Prof. Nigel Hughes

Charecter Design & Concept Art

Our Videos

This is a series of 10 x 10 minute animations telling the story of India’s 9000 km journey as a continent and the animals that accompanied it on the journey. To make these freely available over the internet to children all over the subcontinent.