EXCLUSIVE: Emmy award-winning Indian producer Apoorva Bakshi (Delhi Crime) has boarded The Glassworker, Pakistan’s first ever Hayao Miyazaki-style animated feature, as an executive producer.
Bakshi, who is producing through her Awedacious Originals banner, joins a growing team of supporters of the ground-breaking 2D hand-drawn project, directed by Pakistan’s Usman Riaz and produced through his Karachi-based Mano Animation Studios.
Spanish animation producer Manuel Cristobal is also on board the project, while Paris-based sales agency Charades picked up international rights after it was presented as a work-in-progress at Annecy International Animation Film Festival last year. The film is currently in post-production and scheduled for delivery in August.
Set in a location loosely inspired by Pakistan, the film revolves around a father and son who run the finest glass workshop in the country but find their lives upended by an approaching war in which they want no part.
A long-time fan of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s work, Riaz raised funds on Kickstarter to develop the project, bringing in Khizer Riaz to produce and UK children’s writer Moya O’Shea (Doctors, Little Princess) to write the script. Along with Khizer and production designer Mariam Paracha, Usman set up Mano Animation Studios in Karachi and hired a team of young animators, more than half of whom are women.
“The Glassworker is a truly remarkable project spearheaded by the gifted trio – Usman, Mariam and Khizer, alongside a team of young artists in Pakistan who are igniting a creative revolution in South Asia through their exceptional work,” said Bakshi.
“We are collaborating on a slate of projects which marks my first venture with Pakistani creators in the realm of animation, aiming to cultivate story engineering excellence in a format that has been long underserved in the region and is truly deserving of recognition.”
Mano Animation Studios’ principals said: “We are thrilled to welcome Apoorva to The Glassworker family and our upcoming slate at Mano Animation Studios. Apoorva has been an invaluable supporter, mentor, and advisor, and we feel privileged to collaborate with such a distinguished South Asian producer who builds an ecosystem for creative endeavors to thrive.”
Cristobal, whose credits as producer include 2D animated feature Wrinkles, released in Japan by Studio Ghibli, was an early supporter of the film. “When they contacted me, I was blown away by the uniqueness of the project and the talent and professionalism of Usman and his team.”
Riaz previously directed live-action short films Ruckus (2012) and The Wave (2013). He’s also a musician and composer, releasing two albums, Flashes & Sparks and Circus In The Sky, with EMI Pakistan, and has written the music for The Glassworker.
One of the producers of Netflix Indian series Delhi Crime through Golden Karavan, which she co-founded with partners including Jeff Sagansky, Bakshi is also developing a slate of independent projects through Awedacious Originals, including live-action feature One Of A Kind, from Pakistan’s Iram Parveen Bilal, which was selected for Busan’s Asian Project Market last year.
