Convocation ceremony for Datsi's Second Batch

120 days, a lot can happen in just 120 days. But we certainly contemplated - can one really teach young artists, in such a short span of time, everything they need to survive in the belly of the beast that is the animation industry? With two batches out in the world, Datsi now knows that 120 days is enough to point the artists in the right direction and help them look at their craft in a different way.

As a new institution, we’re constantly evolving our courses and pedagogy, and the convocation ceremony for the Class of March 2024 marks this journey for both the school and its students. Akshay, the batch valedictorian, expressed it beautifully when he said, “Every day, I learnt something new and collected new memories”. It is very inspiring to see the young, nervous group that first entered our doors, grow into confident and ambitious artists ready to step into the animation industry, hoping to not just survive, but to thrive!

Michael Joseph, the director of Datsi School for Storytellers, and Venky Ramanan, a member of the Datsi Foundation and art director from Zebu Animation, spoke to the students about what to look for in their careers and how its very important to keep the artistic vigour alive. Although the effects of the pandemic and the writers’ strike are still imminent across the industry, opportunities exist, one just needs to constantly keep learning, and never forget the real joy and passion of the industry - to tell stories. Our chief guest, Avanish Pathak, the head of the Animation Department at Mikros Animation, reminded us of this innate creative drive when he shared stories of his childhood, of how he would take expensive books from his father’s library and draw little flipbook animations in the corners of the pages.

One of the core tenets of Datsi is Community, and a new tradition is being established where the current batch hosts the convocation ceremony for their seniors. Laughter filled the virtual conference as they interacted with each other, played fun quizzes and games together, and voted to award funny titles to their peers.

This event was also about giving a nod to the hard work of our faculty and staff. Thanks again to our course leads Krishna Babu, Suresh EC, Srinvasan CC, Anup G.John, and Rahul Prabhu, our founding members Venky Ramanan, Veerendra Patil and Sanjee Gupta, and a special mention to our Admin, HR, and IT teams for always bringing their best to help the school run smoothly.

As Michael said, “This is just the beginning. Artistic practice is always an endless process of search.” Congrats to all the graduates! We know you'll go on to do amazing things.