Animated film Goopy Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya, inspired by Satyajit Ray, to be released on 1 March

Goopy Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya (2019), an animation film inspired by Satyajit Ray's Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1969) — which was released 50 years ago — will hit the screens on 1 March.

Directed by Shilpa Ranade, the project has been produced by the Children's Film Society of India in association with Karadi Tales, a publishing house known for children's books.

Ranade, who has illustrated multiple children's books written by Gulzar, said in a statement: "I had read the story and the beauty of the story is that you can re-interpret, revisualize it in your own way without losing the essence. Hence, it is relevant even after so many years."

The idea, she said, was to engage people of today's generation and so the language is contemporary.

Satyajit Ray's son Sandip saw the film recently in Kolkata and said: "The story was written by my great grandfather Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury in a children's magazine called Sandes that he had started in 1912. When my father Satyajit Ray read that short story much later, he was mesmerized.

"My father later revived Sandes (it was shut in the 1930s) and Goopi and Bagha was the first story he republished in 1961. By then he was already a known filmmaker. I happened to complain to him that he should make something for us [children]. He said, 'Let's see, I may make one one day for you.

"The film was planned in 1966 and it got made and released only in 1969. It was a big hit then. It is such a nice story that it has stood the test of time."