A traditional folktale of the Wancho community from Arunachal Pradesh’s Longding district is being adapted into an animated short film, marking the first animation project based on an indigenous story from the remote Patkai Hills along the India-Myanmar border.
The film is being developed during a two-month workshop at an animation institute in Bengaluru in collaboration with the UK-based Adivasi Arts Trust and the Bryan Guinness Charitable Trust. The project brings together four undergraduate design students and two young Wancho artists under the guidance of animation faculty member Vijay Punia.
The initiative originated in Kamhua Noknu, one of the largest Wancho villages in Longding district, where UK-based filmmaker and cultural researcher Jonathan Hope documented oral narratives narrated by village elders during his postdoctoral research in 2019.
As part of the project, 32 traditional stories from Kamhua Noknu and neighbouring villages were recorded, translated into English by local school teacher Jatwang Wangsa and published as a book in 2024.
The animated film is based on The Story of the Gourd, a culturally significant Wancho folktale narrated by the late Ngamchai Wangsa. The story recounts the mythical origins of Wangham, regarded as the first village chief, while exploring themes of traditional governance, agriculture, community life, territorial disputes and the relationship between people and nature.
The project entered its second phase in 2020 with an animation workshop in Kamhua Noknu to introduce local youth to filmmaking and animation. A pre-production workshop in 2021 brought together students, researchers, media professionals and Wancho participants to develop the screenplay, storyboard, character designs and test animation sequences.
Although the initiative was delayed by administrative issues, fresh funding from the Bryan Guinness Charitable Trust enabled work to resume. The Bengaluru team has since created handcrafted animation models and is using stop-motion techniques to produce the film.
Once completed, the animated short will be released in Wancho, Hindi and English as part of the Stories of Our Ancestors series, with the objective of preserving Arunachal Pradesh’s indigenous oral traditions and introducing them to younger audiences through animation.
