Film Unit produced Radha and Krishnain 1956, using miniature paintings of Indian art.
Ram Mohan also worked at the Films Division until the late 1960s, when he left to join
Prasad Productions as animation head. He founded his own company in 1972. Other impor-
tant Films Division alumni included V. G. Samant, A. R. Sen (writer, designer, and anima-
tor), B. R. Shendge (artist), Shaila Paralkar (animator), G. H. Saraiya (animator), Rani D.
Burra (director), Arun Gondale (artist), Bhimsain, Pramod Pati, Satam, and Suresh Naik.
Nina Sabnani and Binita Desai made films at the National Institute of Design. The Chil-
dren’s Film Society of India, set up by the government, produced many animated films. 2NZ
produced the first animation series in India. Climb Films, founded by Bhimsain, was the first
Indian company to specialize in computer animation. In the late 1990s animation in India
grew. Toonz Animation in Trivandrum hosted an international festival. Another festival, the
Mumbai International Festival, grew to be one of the largest short film festivals in the world.
Studios like JadooWorks, Pentamedia Graphics, 2NZ (a division of Climb Media), Cine
Magic, Digikore Studios, Padmalaya Telefilms Ltd., and MUV Technologies provided work
for many animators. Some of these studios were also developing projects of their own. The
Indian government and the chamber of commerce, in their attempts to expand the high-tech
industry in India, have tried to reach out to the U.S. and Canadian animation industries.
Animation in Iran
Jafar Tejaratchi, who was later joined by filmmakers Esphandiar Ahmadieh and Parviz
Osanloo, made the first frame-by-frame, animated films in Iran in the late 1950s. The Min-
istry of Culture and Art sponsored several of their films. Audiences discovered the new ani-
mation of the 1960s at the first Teheran Festival in 1966, and in 1969 the Institute for the
Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults opened a film department that spe-
cialized in animation. In the 1970s a center for experimental animation was founded, and a
graduate program in animation was established at a local university. But animation halted
during the fall of the Iranian Shah and didn’t start up again until the mid-1980s, when once
again it was sponsored by the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children. Farshid
Mesghali was one of the most famous animators, making many films (Mister Monster, Look
Again,andA Drop of Blood, a Drop of Oil) in the 1970s and 1980s. Other important Iranian
filmmakers included Ali-Akbar Sadeghi, Vajiholah Fard Moghadam, and Nooreddin
Zarrinkelk.
Animation in Israel
In Israel in the 1950s small teams made animated films on commission along with a few
experimental films. Yoram Gross made the first Israeli animated feature,Joseph the Dreamer,
in 1961 before leaving for Australia. Production continued to grow. Animators turned out
work for the Hebraic version of Sesame Street, for education, and for advertising, as well
as for independent films. Animation divisions operated within Educational Television and
National Television in the 1960s. Roni Oren’s Frame by Frame studio specialized in puppet
33Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network
change the style of U.S. cartoons.