Generally, maths teachers are inextricably linked with some pretty negative emotions—anxiety, depression, sadness. Rarely have they been a source of laughter and entertainment. Well, for a generation of kids, one particular maths teacher was—namely Simpoo Singh. Created by Vaibhav Kumaresh for Channel V, the mascot—based on his school teacher—is fondly remembered by kids who grew up in the late ’90s and early 2000s, mainly for his cute accent and innovative ways of dealing with difficult students.

In addition to this iconic character, Kumaresh has also worked on various other memorable advertisements, including Vodafone’s Zumis, as well as created the beloved children’s cartoon Lamput for Cartoon Network. Most recently, his independent studio—Vaibhav Studios—has developed a feature-length animated film titled Return of the Jungle. The film was screened in five cities across India as a part of the Mumbai International Film Festival.

Today, on Teacher’s Day, we thought it would be fitting to highlight Kumaresh’s work, which reached the spotlight largely because of his not-so-beloved maths teacher. He told us all about his journey, gave us insight into the Indian animation industry and what he thinks it lacks as a whole.

Vaibhav Kumaresh’s work for Amaron Battery

How did you get interested in animation? As a kid, were you always interested in the visual arts?

In the beginning, storytelling is what was very intriguing to me. I grew up reading Amar Chitra Katha comics. So since the very beginning, visual storytelling of the comics was what excited me the most. And Amar Chitra Katha mainly contained folk tales, mythology… all of these were packaged so beautifully, I was just mesmerised by them. Even the cover pages. They had such a great team of illustrators. The kind of cult artists that Uncle Pai (Anant Pai) had managed to assemble was brilliant. So the storytelling keeda was always there.

I remember my parents telling me that I used to make everybody at home act out a story. I would go through the comics and ask my mom, “Hey, what is he saying in this panel?” And then once the plot was in my head, I wanted to express it in my own way. So overall, I would say visual arts, performing arts, all of it was very exciting to me.

Is it safe to say that you weren’t really interested in academics?

Hahaha. In a way. I did my schooling till tenth grade. I was okay at studies. I think I came third in school during my board exams so I think I was decent at that. But what was more exciting to me was the extra curricular activities. My dad was also in the army so I grew up all over the country. And every place I went I was just soaking in the stories.

After my tenth grade, I went for my graduation, because at that time you didn’t have to particularly do your eleventh and twelfth. I applied to a fine arts college and my parents were extremely supportive. To be honest, I was not even sure what I was going to do. My dad was the one who found out about the college and applied on my behalf. This is where I got my hands dirty with all the mediums—sculpture, photography, photo-journalism. And five years was enough time for us to soak it all in.

I had chosen Applied Art as my major. So we worked on various ad campaigns and commercial art to tell stories. That’s where I realised I can use the moving picture medium. Then I went to NID [National Institute of Design] where I learnt animation. That was always there in our lives because we grew up watching Disney, Pingu and so many other things on Doordarshan. So this culmination of so many art forms was exciting for me. It was all a very natural progression, to be honest.

Do you remember any particular artists whose work really inspired you in the early days?

Yes! If I’m going chronologically, Amar Chitra Katha was illustrated by this gentleman called C. M. Vitankar. He is an amazing illustrator. Whether it was the cover or the comics inside, his work was always so inspiring.

Then there was Ram Waeerkar. He even worked for Tinkle later. Nasruddin Hodja, Suppandi, Pyarelal. It was all him. There was also Pratap Mullick.

And of course, we grew up reading Asterix. Tintin used to appear on Illustrated Weekly of India. One column used to come in this huge magazine which was almost like a newspaper. And Tintin is so detailed. The geography, the minor features that Hergé (the illustrator) got right—the automobiles, dressed, landscapes. We appreciate it more now but that’s what drew us in when we were young.

There was Mario Miranda, R. K. Laxman. So all these people’s work I used to see so often and grew up on it.

In recent times, I really appreciate the work of this Malaysian artist named Lat. He’s like the R. K. Laxman of their country. Extremely respected artist globally. He draws these untidy kind of illustrations telling us stories of his childhood but they’re so expressive.

Do you remember your first illustrations or comics that you worked on?

My mom had given me this thick black book. I used to keep doodling in that. In the eighth grade, I remember I had made a modern version of the Ramayana. I had illustrated the whole story. That was the time when Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan used to come on Doordarshan. So I thought to myself I should re-tell this story in some way.

This lead to Simpoo. In tenth grade, I had this maths teacher who the character is based on. I had illustrated an entire book on him. Those are some of the earliest things I remember working on.

A lot of the comics you mentioned growing up on had a humorous tone to them. Were you always inclined towards comedy as a genre?

Yes yes. I think everyone has certain default settings. So, from my preferences you can tell that I was drawn to a certain flavour of work. Even in the family I was the joker. I would act out things and sing and dance. Make puppets, put on costumes. Crack bad jokes. So that was the family expectation… ki yeh kya hi karega. (Laughs)

But you did end up creating the iconic Simpoo Singh. How did that come about? What was your relationship with your maths teacher who the character is based on?

I’ll be very honest, I don’t know what the teacher was like. It was all in my head. Even when I was in school, he wasn’t my dear teacher nor was I his ideal student. The idea didn’t even come from my head. There are these classmates who are assholes, right? The backbenchers. So, in ninth-tenth standard, when puberty hit—and it hits some people harder than others—these kids would pass comments about every teacher. And I was in Chandigarh at the time, so these kids had a lot of daring and said whatever they wanted. I was extremely decent in their comparison.

But there was that sadistic part of me that was enjoying the stories that they were cooking up about these teachers. They would just be making fun of the teachers and I would think to myself, these are such great stories! I just borrowed those stories and I was seeing it in a certain way in my head. But yes, my impression of my teacher who Simpoo is based on is through these stories. I don’t know anything else about him. I only knew he sounded a certain way, spoke a certain way. We would imitate him. So even in the cartoons, I have voiced all the characters—Simpoo and the students.

In a nutshell, it’s a funny teacher’s impression created by the bad boys in the class that was absorbed by the good boy.

All those years after school, how did Simpoo Singh come back to life?

So in ’98-’99, after my graduation, I was working with Famous Studios. We were working on some in-house project of theirs which did not turn out well and as a result the animation department of the studio was going to shut down. So we had to sustain ourselves. We had to go pitch ideas and earn our salaries. During that time, I went to Channel V and MTV, where some of our seniors were. That’s how Simpoo came back to life.

So, Simpoo became an iconic ident for the channel. It worked so well. When there was no Instagram or YouTube, people were still speaking about it around us. That was the feedback to know what was working. And Simpoo really took off so I had to create more and more ideas. Eventually I started cooking up stories. Then he was used to promote shows or make spoofs of shows. The briefs were simple but the stories were a lot of fun to work on. That’s the Simpoo story.

As someone who has been in the industry for so many decades, how has the industry evolved?

That’s a vast thing to explore. But basically, we have two worlds of animation in the country. One is the American and European industry that is based out of India. I wouldn’t call it the Indian animation industry. But unfortunately that’s 90 percent of the industry. So majority of the work that is happening in our country nowadays is outsourced work. Whether it’s Marvel, Sony, Life of Pi. This is something that had started when I finished my education. But they were never telling their own stories.

In that sense, I have immense respect for our Grandfathers of Animation, so to speak, such as Bhim Sain ji, Ram Mohan sir. They started their own studios to tell their own original stories and rarely did any outsourced work. So I think we need to go back to that.

And now there are academies that claim to teach you animation within six months, eight months. So this ecosystem has developed but it’s purely job-centric. It’s great that there’s a plethora of work that is happening but it’s just not for me.

I pride myself in being a part of the smaller ten percent that I call the Indian animation industry. I want to create and tell my own stories. I don’t want to be a small part of someone else’s vision. But no disrespect to anyone who is doing that, everyone has their own approach.

According to you, where does Indian animation stand today?

So recently, the Indian animation films have been huge losses. People are not going to the theatre to watch them. Whether it was Chhota Bheem, Delhi Safari, Arjun. There are so many gods and baal gods. We’ve done it to death. But somewhere I feel, we aren’t telling the stories in an interesting way. Even if it’s mythology, the way you re-tell it is what catches the audience’s imagination. So the storyteller becomes critical but they haven’t done a good job. Therefore, we have a very mediocre industry.

The television industry is even more pathetic. Producers are churning out stuff within peanut budgets. They are happily helpless. And then people think that, if we don’t like this then bacchon ko pasand aayegi. An impression has been created that Indian animation is for kids. Whereas Marvel is for adults too. But there are some artists who are trying to change the tide and hopefully it will happen.

In Japan, anime is something that is consumed by all ages. How do you think Indian artists can achieve that?

See, Indian animation has to evolve and find it’s own way like the live-action industry has done across almost 120 years. So animation filmmakers have to adapt. In a country like Japan, creators have always been respected. Their manga (Japanese comics) foundation is so strong, they have genres catering to specific age groups. And that translates so well to anime. They have so many topics that they tell stories about. There are food-related anime, sports, young adults, romance… they have content for mature audiences. They are so evolved in that sense.

But because, like I mentioned 90 percent of the industry is working in the service department, so to speak. It’s like colonialism only, right? Aap kaam do hum seva karenge. But why? Why can’t we tell our own stories?

So the daring to tell your own stories and build your own industry is missing. Very few people are doing it so it isn’t very visible. But Indian audiences are also big fans of anime. So there is an audience for this kind of content. But Japan took it’s time to develop that industry. We need to do the same.

You also have your own studio. Can you tell us about some of the work that you guys are doing?

So, as a studio our motive is to bridge these gaps and tell original stories. We recently finished producing a Hindi feature-length animation film. It’s called Return of the Jungle and it’s 105-minutes-long. There’s a little something for everyone in the film. But overall, our thought process is—if we don’t entertain our audiences, who will? Currently we’re in talks for the distribution of the film. It was screened in five cities as a part of the Mumbai International Film Festival. We got a great response.

We are excited but we are going slow because of the reputation we have created for ourselves. We are looking for takers and hopefully we’ll crack something. But what would be great is if people get inspired to take a bet on themselves and tell their own stories too.

Are there any new artists who you would like to give a shoutout to?

Sure. There’s one colleague of mine named Anand Babu. Even though I might have created Lamput he’s the real father of the cartoon. He directed the show over the seasons. He has a very unique way of thinking and expressing those thoughts. Then there is Studio Eeksaurus, which is a team headed by E. Suresh. Their visual art direction and sound design is something I really like. Then there is this filmmaker named Upamanyu Bhattacharyya. He’s making his own animated feature film. His film is hand-painted and embroidered. I like that. We need more people like him who are willing to express themselves without any inhibitions.