A traditional folktale from the Wancho community of Arunachal Pradesh’s Longding district is being adapted into an animated short film, marking the first such project based on an indigenous story from the remote Patkai Hills near the India-Myanmar border.
The film is currently being developed during a two-month workshop at an institute in Bengaluru, according to a statement from Adivasi Arts Trust, a UK-based charity set up to promote and preserve Indian indigenous art, culture and storytelling through animation and digital media.
The workshop is being conducted in collaboration with the Trust and the Bryan Guinness Charitable Trust (UK), bringing together four undergraduate design students and two young Wancho artists under the guidance of animation faculty member Vijay Punia, it said.
The project traces its origins to Kamhua Noknu, one of the largest traditional Wancho villages in Longding district.
It began in 2019 when UK-based filmmaker and cultural researcher Jonathan Hope visited the village to document oral narratives stated by village elders as part of his postdoctoral research.
As part of the study, 32 stories were recorded from Kamhua Noknu and nearby villages.
Local school teacher Jatwang Wangsa translated the stories, which were published in a book in 2024.
The stories, preserved through oral tradition, reflect the community’s beliefs, customs and relationship with nature.
The second phase of the initiative began in 2020 with an animation workshop in Kamhua Noknu aimed at introducing local youth to filmmaking and animation.The team selected The Story of the Gourd for adaptation because of its importance in Wancho cultural traditions.
Narrated by the late Ngamchai Wangsa, father of Jatwang Wangsa, the story recounts the mythical creation of Wangham, regarded as the first village chief, and explores themes of community life, traditional agriculture, territorial disputes, governance and the relationship between people and their environment.
In March 2021, a pre-production workshop was organised, bringing together students, researchers, media professionals and eight Wancho participants to develop the screenplay, storyboard, character designs and test animation sequences for the film.
The project, however, was delayed for several years due to administrative issues before receiving fresh financial support from the Bryan Guinness Charitable Trust.
The Bengaluru team has since created hand-crafted animation models and is using the institute’s stop-motion animation studio to produce the film.
The completed short film will present the Wancho ancestral narrative in Wancho, Hindi and English as part of the Stories of Our Ancestors series, introducing indigenous oral traditions of Arunachal Pradesh to younger audiences through animation.
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Arunachal's Wancho heritage heads to the screen with landmark animation
