Indian stories from the hinterland, for the world.
India has a billion stories — folk tales, small towns, grandmother myths — and the world has met almost none of them. Katha is the animation studio that changes that, with the patience and craft the world reserves for the very best animation.
The world is hungry for animation. India renders it — and owns almost none of it.
India’s animation and VFX industry is racing toward $3 billion, its artists power global blockbusters, and a national AVGC-XR mission is pushing the sector from services to IP. What’s missing is the studio that pairs world-class craft with stories India actually owns.
We are not inventing a tradition. We are inheriting one.
India has always animated its stories — in ritual, in cloth, in performance, in landscapes that feel drawn by hand. Katha’s house style begins here, not in a software menu.
“Every Indian grandmother is a director. Every temple wall is a storyboard. The pipeline is ancient — we’re just adding the cameras.”
The Katha thesisOne small story, told the way we make films: in light and weather.
Scroll gently. This is a sketch of The Lantern of Alanpur — an original Katha short — playing in the medium we love: your own pace.
At dusk, the power fails.
In Alanpur — every small town you’ve ever loved — the lights go out just as Meera’s grandmother reaches the good part of the story. “Fetch the lantern,” Ajji says. But the lantern is empty.
The night offers a bargain.
Out in the dark, the fireflies gather around Meera like a slow green constellation. They will light the story — but only for as long as it is told well. Wonder, it turns out, is a fuel.
The monsoon tests the teller.
Rain arrives mid-tale, the way it always does. The fireflies dim. Meera must tell the storm itself into the story — and Ajji, smiling, hands her the hardest lesson of all: don’t fight the weather. Write it in.
Dawn keeps what the night made.
By morning the power is back and nobody needs the lantern. But Meera has it now — the old knowledge, the family trade: any dark can be lit from inside. That is the film. That is the studio.
Every Katha film works like this: a real place, a small hero, weather with opinions — and wonder with rules.
Three worlds to open with — rooted, warm, built to travel.
Concept properties in development. Each is a real India made magical — emotionally honest, hand-drawn, and designed to be loved far beyond it.
Season
The Mango Season
A girl and her grandmother race one last monsoon to save a dying orchard on the Andhra coast. A tender, funny, food-soaked first film.
to Nowhere
Nightbus to Nowhere
An overnight bus across small-town India where every passenger carries a folk tale that comes alive between stops. An anthology built for streaming.
Shola
The Last Shola
In the mists of the Western Ghats, a spirit-fox guards the last cloud-forest. Our festival calling card — and the studio’s namesake.
Fund the studio with craft. Get wealthy on the stories we own.
Original animation is slow and expensive — so the studio runs two engines that share one culture, one pipeline and one obsession with drawing well.
The Craft Studio
Premium service and co-production for global streamers, studios and mission-aligned brands. Predictable cash flow, on-the-job mastery, and the industry relationships that later greenlight our own films.
- Contract animation & co-productions at world-class spec
- Brand & cultural storytelling (including the Shola family)
- Every project trains the team our originals will need
The Story Lab
A protected pipeline developing owned IP — cheap on paper before it is expensive on film. Stories are proven in low-cost media first, so the studio never bets the house on an unloved idea.
- Publishing-first: picture books & graphic novels test every world
- Shorts for festivals & YouTube build fandom and reels
- Commissioned originals with retained IP share; features last
One breathtaking short
Make The Last Shola to festival standard. It is the calling card, the style bible and the talent magnet — proof we can do the thing.
Stand up the craft engine
Land service and co-production contracts riding India’s AVGC tailwind. Publish the first two Katha storybooks; let readers vote on the worlds.
Sell the first owned series
Pitch Nightbus to Nowhere with a proven audience attached — someone else’s money, our retained IP. Feature development begins in parallel.
The flagship feature
Deliver The Mango Season to festivals and streaming. A growing library, a beloved world or two — India’s original animation house.
Have a story worth drawing? Let’s make it beautiful.
Streamers, financiers, festival programmers, publishers — and artists tired of rendering other people’s dreams. Come find us.
hello@shola.life