Ayuree is America’s First Female South Asian American Story Time Animation Character
Ayuree is the first Indian American or South Asian American character created by a North Carolina Indian-American artist. Ayuree is Heroine of Compassion, a powerful trait that she possesses with that she touches the heart and soul of all and embarks on saving the world with the goal to bring love, peace, unity, and wellness to the planet.
The concept and storyline was written by Jyoti Singh, Ketki Handa, and Ravi Relangi in 2017. Ayuree shines positive vibrations to overcome dilemmas we face and will face in the many generations, and to live our daily life in harmony. The North Carolina Indian and South Asian Film Festival (NCISAFF) received a grant from the Town of Cary’s Lazy Daze Arts and Crafts Festival for the 2020 film festival; however, because of Covid-19 the public film screening and in-person artist visit were canceled. The remaining funds by NCISAFF, RVP Productions, and the Lazy Daze grant were used to create the story time animation to keep art alive during pandemic and send out meaningful messages through film.
The animation Screenplay Designer and Director is Gauri Singh, a local filmmaker and producer of the annual Franklin County, NC film festival. Singh stumbled upon a Wake County South Asian animation artist of Indian origin while searching on Facebook. What drew her to the artist and the family was their passion and drive to work on the project. The Story Time Animation designer director is child artist, Thanvi Anugu, backed by her parents Ajay Reddy Anugu and Sharadha Reddy Anugu, grasped the concept very quickly and understood the screenplay scene to scene design, understanding the visualization explained in their first couple of meetings during Covid-19 with Zoom; and the animation was exact to the details as explained.
Animated heroine Ayuree’s helpers are her friends, Fengshui the Owl, Noah the Peacock, and the butterflies who follow her on her pursuit of happiness and help. The jingle jingle on her feet bring the sounds of vibrations that touches the earth to bring about change. This character teaches us that we all have power within us to bring about a change and impact a persons day with simple acts. Compassion goes a long way and must be applied at all times, not just during Covid-19 or other epidemic or pandemic, but as a way of life.
The Ayuree stories reflect stories of regular people or were written based on lives or situations encountered by people living in our surroundings who face these situations or difficulties. These different heartbreaking situations were analyzed by the team, Jyoti Singh, Ravi Relangi, and Ketki Handa, and the story writers, and then the team worked to understand how the nine dimensions of wellness would apply to heal the situation. Those wellness dimensions include: social, emotional, psychological, physical, environmental, technological, spiritual, emotional, and mental.
The first story time animation film is complete, and a second one is in production which will cover wellness concepts of the environment, technology, and nature. The trailer, released on November 26, 2020, may be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfDaz0FBQuk.
The inspiration for developing this character came from watching and listening to the compassionate work and other important messages of many, like Amritananamayi (The Hugging Saint), Dalai Lama, Guru Nanak, Jesus Christ, Karunamayi, Mother Teresa, Native American figures, and more; however, the story writers wanted a real life type character who can imbibe the characteristics in their daily life and apply the 9 concepts of wellness in order to combat day-to-day issues to bring about a positive way of life to live upon with simple acts of daily compassion which can be taught to children and adults.
Source: Gauri Singh and Ravi Relangi
