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Journalism of Courage
NOVEMBER 7: Thirteen-year-old Kartik Krishna Ayyar can’t wait for January 1, 2000 to dawn. And it’s not the dream of a new millennium that has him so excited, it’s television. On January 1, Kartik will become cartoon character Construction Man, powering his way through 60-second interstitials on a roller-coaster on the TNT Cartoon Network.
Kartik and four other Mumbai children, all winners of TNT’s Get Tooned contest, will compete with Scooby Doo, Daffy Duck and the entire network gang for air space beginning next year. They will all get a chance to see their own animated selves on the TNT Cartoon Network.
Part of the channel’s attempt to get their tiny viewers hooked onto the programming, Get Tooned for the first time is animating real people and giving them the power of a cartoon character. This also coincides with the channel’s fifth anniversary in the Asia Pacific region.
Kartik’s journey from an ordinary schoolboy to Construction Man began when he wrote to the channel telling them “what was socartoony about him”. Even as Kartik was mailing his letter, Waleed Khot, Kanchan Matkar, Nirzari Mangeshikar and Urvashi Lele were all picking up their pens as well. And a couple of weeks back, they all got a call from the network asking them to get ready for some prime time in front of the camera.
Twelve-year-old Nirzari Mangeshikar has grown up playing Ghostbusters and her favourite cartoon characters are The Smurfs. But winning the contest gave her a reel chance to kick up a storm as Ninja Girl. “During the shooting, they asked me to stand against a backdrop and make all kinds of poses,” says Nirzari. “I had to do some karate chops also. They will take this footage and animate it.”
Kanchan Matkar is a pro at contests. “She enters a lot of contests,” says her mother Jyotsana Matkar. “In fact we didn’t know about this at all till the phone call came.” Kanchan’s prize, other than the gift hamper all winners got, is a chance to play princess. In her role as Flamenco Kid, Kanchan has a band ofrobots as followers. “They have taken a number of my shots. They asked me to smile, frown, sulk. They will show my original face on the show first and then the animated one,” she beams.
The youngest of the lot, seven-year-old Urvashi Lele was also very secretive about entering the contest. She only asked her mother for stamps and permission to take out a picture from the album. Her entry, “I watch so much cartoons, my mother said I look like one”, gave her a chance to play roller-coaster kid. And 10-year-old Waleed, who likes Popeye, plays Banana Man.
Facing the camera for the first time, the “toony five” gave it their best shot. And they are all confident that they will look swell on television. “I don’t think I’ll look funny,” says Kartik confidently. “I have informed all my friends and everybody will be tuned in.”
