Smile Please, No Stress

MANU DEV reports on a children’s TV show in Argentina that is inspired by Indic insight


    He is a hero with a difference. He shuns violence and carries the flag of human values. And he has won a place in the hearts of millions of children in Latin American countries — and he is soon coming to India. Meet Plim Plim, the clown-hero, whose creation was inspired by the presentation of Universal Declaration of Human Values at the UN General Assembly by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of the Art of Living (AOL) Foundation.

The spiritual leader said: “We must foster the creation of new role models and heroes to re-awaken human values in youth…. The true heroes of humanity shine, not as a result of triumphing over a villain, but because of their very character and virtue.”
 

These inspiring words set Argentinean Claudio Pousada to team up with his friend Guillermo Pino to create the cartoon series. Plim Plim is now aired in over 20 countries of Latin America on Disney Junior and has gone on to become one of the top-rated cartoons of Latin America.

Their company is aptly named Smilehood as a lot of smiling happens there. Pousada says: “The company’s philosophy is inspired by AOL. We live and practise whatever we tell the children in our programmes. So we share, we help each other. We smile, that’s what we do. The whole company works this way. We have a meditation hall, perhaps the first TV production company to have one. It’s a fun company.”

Commenting on Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s influence on his work, Pousada says: “He influenced everything — in the way we work, in the content, in the way in which we relate to each other. There’s nothing outside Guruji’s influence. In other companies, they work under a strict deadline. So people work under stress. Our challenge is to work under the same circumstances, but without stress. That’s a big difference.”

The stories also draw inspiration from the tales of the Panchatantra. The episodes convey ancient wisdom adapted to a modern context. “We are combining the ancient and the modern. When we show children messages of violence, then children go away from their own nature. Plim Plim’s message is that children should remain the way they are,” Pousada says.

The characters in the series that’s a cultural melting pot, draw inspiration from different parts of the world. For example, Nesho, the character with an elephant face, resembles Ganesha, while the meaning of the character Mei-Li is ‘beautiful’ in Chinese.

 

Pousada and Pino have had their share of challenges on their journey. “There were lots of moments when we didn’t know what to do,” says Pousada. “Our home got flooded — where we have our studio — and two-metre-high water submerged everything. The computers were drenched. About 50 volunteers from AOL, Argentina, came to our home for 15 days to help us. Our neighbours took six months to recover. We were back to work in two weeks.” Now, they’re heroes in the real world. And it all began with having the heart in the right place and spreading joy and smiles.

manu.dev@timesgroup.