Deep in the Patkai Hills of Arunachal Pradesh, where the mountains brush the India-Myanmar border and ancient stories still travel by word of mouth, something quietly extraordinary is happening. A traditional folktale of the Wancho community from Longding district is being brought to life as an animated short film — and it will be the very first of its kind to emerge from this remote corner of the Northeast.
A Story Older Than Memory
The film is built around “The Story of the Gourd,” a culturally significant Wancho folktale originally narrated by the late Ngamchai Wangsa. The story traces the mythical origins of Wangham, believed to be the first-ever village chief, while weaving together themes of traditional governance, agriculture, human relationships with nature, and community bonds. It is the kind of story that has held Wancho society together for generations — told at firesides, not on screens. Until now.
How It All Began
The journey to this animation studio started back in 2019, when UK-based filmmaker and cultural researcher Jonathan Hope arrived in Kamhua Noknu, one of the largest traditional Wancho villages in Longding, for his postdoctoral research. Sitting with village elders, he documented 32 oral narratives from Kamhua Noknu and nearby villages. Local school teacher Jatwang Wangsa translated them into English, and by 2024, those stories had been published as a book. That book is now becoming a film. Not a bad journey for a folktale that had never left its village.
Stop-Motion in Bengaluru, Roots in the Patkai Hills
The animation is currently being produced during a two-month residential workshop at an institute in Bengaluru, in collaboration with the UK-based Adivasi Arts Trust and the Bryan Guinness Charitable Trust. Four undergraduate design students and two young Wancho artists are working together under animation faculty member Vijay Punia, crafting handmade models for a stop-motion production. The project did face delays due to administrative hurdles along the way, but fresh funding got it back on track. The first on-ground animation workshop had been conducted in Kamhua Noknu itself back in 2020, followed by a pre-production workshop in 2021 where screenplay, storyboards, character designs, and test sequences were developed with researchers and media professionals.
Three Languages, One Message
Once complete, the animated short will be released in Wancho, Hindi, and English under the “Stories of Our Ancestors” series. The goal is straightforward — give younger generations a reason to stay connected to their roots, in a format they actually watch.
There is something deeply moving about this. An elder’s voice, recorded in a village most people could not find on a map, is now being animated frame by frame in a studio hundreds of kilometres away. That is not just cultural preservation. That is a civilization refusing to be forgotten.
— Naitik
Abotani TV
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