The world of animation will soon lend its teletubbies to a whole array of social concerns that, Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna believes, is plaguing the nation and its Capital New Delhi.

With the state government getting tough on public smoking and littering on Delhi’s streets, Khanna will harness the potential of animated films in spreading awareness about social ills. The Raj Niwas plans to start a programme through which one-minute long animated films will be screened at all movie halls in the city. Apart from the issues of smoking and littering, these films will also look at graver concerns like female foeticide.

The protagonist of an anti-smoking film is 30-something Jeff, who sports on his T-shirt his macho image — “I Can Do It Better”. He bounces on the screen and proceeds to flick open a packet of cigarettes in true Rajnikanth style. The moment he starts smoking, the warning “Cigarette Smoking Is Injurious To Health” flashes neon red on the pack. Jeff kicks the packet offstage, but another, this time of a different brand, appears. In no time, Jeff is buried under a pile of cigarettes, with images of clogged and black lungs floating around.

Khanna is looking at employing Delhi-based animation company Pumpkin to make the films. The company, also an academy of digital arts that trains in animation-making and has already explored socially-relevant themes, has as its chairman and director Hardeep Singh Gill. Gill said, “I played this anti-smoking clip before the L-G today. It had won a competition in 2005. Khanna seemed to be impressed.” Gill has made another short animated film on female foeticide. It was provoked by a feature he caught on a news channel — on a newborn girl being thrown in a lake in Udaipur.

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