Monkeys of Mumbai: Saving Deepu

Monkeys of Mumbai was a film directed by Kevin Lima, that was in production at DreamWorks feature for a number of years, before being cancelled in the company reshuffle at the end of 2014. It was the film I came on to when I joined DreamWorks after Shadow-King was cancelled by Disney, and though I didn't work on it for the entire time it was in production (I got moved on to Croods 2 shortly before it was cancelled) it was the film closest to my heart of all the shows I worked on there.

This scene was my favourite of my scenes in the film. It was my first time drawing in Photoshop, so I was learning as I went. I was boarding it at a time of great personal upheaval and was probably in the darkest period I've had since I was a teenager. I poured all of that sadness and sense of loss in to the scene, and while the result is a little over-cooked, it was very cathartic and I learned a hell of a lot.

Raj moves through the rubble of Mumbai, searching for his little brother Deepu who's been mortally injured in the final battle with Ravana. Being the emotional climax of the movie, the scene calls back to earlier moments in the story, so it may be a little opaque to those unfamiliar with the Ramayana.

© DreamWorks Feature Animation