If you were to count the most successful filmmakers in Pakistan’s history, you perhaps wouldn’t think to count Aziz Jindani, but he’s in a league of his own.
The Donkey King is still the highest grossing animated film from Pakistan. Adjusted for inflation, it’s one of the 10 highest grossing Pakistani films worldwide. No Pakistani animated film comes close. This fact is as big a surprise to Aziz Jindani as it may be to you!
Thankfully, he hasn’t stopped there. He’s been hard at work on “My Daddy My Superhero: An Ode to Every Father”, an animated superhero film, planned as an ode to fatherhood. We caught up with him to see how things are progressing and when we’ll be able to see the next animated blockbuster in theaters.
Aziz Jindani’s Second Superhero
Aziz Jindani has had more than a decade of prior experience with superheroes. He created Pakistan’s most famous superhero, Commander Safeguard. An entire generation grew up with the iconic germi-shield and the white and blue costume, and he considers it an honour to have led the project.
While his experience with the Commander has certainly informed his current work, his second superhero has far more heart, and that’s why he’s far more endearing.
An Ode to Fatherhood
The subcontinent has a lot of stories about child and parent bonding. However, most of that literature is skewed towards the mother-child relationship. In films, especially, the hero is usually very attached to his mother. Fathers are usually portrayed as stern and disciplinary. Sons are sometimes even at odds with them.
“My Daddy My Superhero” is Aziz Jindani’s contribution to that underserved dynamic of father-child bonding. He’s made this film for every father, including his own.
Fahad Mustafa’s First Fatherly Role in a Film
Fahad Mustafa was Aziz Jindani’s first choice when casting. The filmmaker cites his ‘free flowing dialogue delivery and persona’ as a perfect fit for the “Daddy” character.
Mustafa has lent his voice to an animated character in the “3 Bahadur” franchise already; however, he’s tackling the role of a father for the first time in his film career. In fact, the reason Aziz Jindani chose him is that he’s a loving father himself. That emotion has apparently flowed into his voice-over work.
The Team Behind My Daddy My Superhero
The Commander and the Donkey have seen success unlike any other animated venture in Pakistan. Even though others have brought their best forward, none have been able to compete.
The difference maker is Aziz Jindani’s team of creatives and marketing professionals.
Zeeshan Karimi
Ever since Aziz Jindani introduced Commander Safeguard to Pakistan, there has been one person by his side: Zeeshan Karimi.
His IMDb page lists credits like the iconic Dharam Bharam song from Commander Safeguard, Burka Avenger, The Donkey King, and Exorcist: The Beginning. So he’s done everything from animation to visual effects for Hollywood productions.
“…frankly, the way I see it, life has chosen the two of us to collaborate ever since he directed Commander Safeguard decades ago…”
While their storytelling sensibilities apparently differ, Jindani and Karimi complement each other in their common goal of delivering a fun and engaging narrative. They created magic together with Commander Safeguard, and repeated it with the “Donkey King”. With “My Daddy My Superhero”, they’re hoping for a hat-trick.
Talisman Studios Animation Team
“Pakistan produced a strong pipeline of animation / CGI talent in early 2000s. However, due to lack of indigenous IP production, many folks migrated abroad.”
Talisman Studios was founded in 2018 to produce “The Donkey King”. The team comprises several senior artists who have lent their expertise to producing quality animation and training new blood in-house. These include Mir Hammad in Production Design, and Taimur Jehangir, head of CGI.
This gives Talisman Studios an advantage over the competition, since there is a dearth of quality 3D animators in the country. While the CGI side of things is more fertile, those artists lend their talents mostly to live action projects.
Marketing Expertise
With a long, successful career in Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Dalda Foods, and now Emaar Pakistan, Aziz Jindani knows marketing inside out. So he actually knows how to market a film beyond doing talk shows and posting trailers online.
“Movie promotion is an important building block in creating anticipation and excitement ahead of a film’s release. This is a specialised job, but locally it doesn’t get the strategic focus and attention it deserves.”
Aziz Jindani has even developed a paper called “The Art & Science of Marketing an Animated Movie”. He still needs to update it due to the rise of new platforms like TikTok, but he hopes to release it for the public benefit one day.
His bag of marketing tricks includes new methods like social media and SEO, but also an old one that has always worked in the subcontinent: music.
The Donkey King’s title song, “Donkey Raja” by Shuja Haider, has over 100 million views on YouTube! Aziz Jindani credits this as a huge factor in the film’s success.
Pakistani and Indian films have always relied on their music to reach beyond the silver screen and into every room. However, today there’s a decided lack of popular music in Pakistani films. Think about it; when was the last time you deliberately put a Pakistani film song on repeat? When did you last hear one ringing out in a restaurant or a mall?
The Long and Winding Animated Road
The teaser for “My Daddy My Superhero” dropped in 2024 without any prior buzz, but the film has been in development since before “The Donkey King” was even released. It was just a spark then, but Aziz Jindani never let go. This was a story that had to be told.
He took his time constructing the screenplay and making it watertight. After 3 years of drafting and polishing, the screenplay was finally ready. After that, a further year of design work followed.
Creating the Animatic
He and his team created a full “animatic” for the film, which is a preliminary video storyboard. It combines rough sketches, voice-over and music to test how an animated film would look.
The animatic also combines camera movements into the mix so that timing and pacing are addressed before the film goes into full production.
After that, production was finally greenlit.
Yet, “My Daddy My Superhero” was postponed in 2025 to a 2026 summer release. However, there are no updates yet, and Aziz Jindani informs us that the release has been pushed again to the end of 2026.
And there’s a good reason for it.
The Costs of Animation in Pakistan
In total, Pakistan has produced 8 animated films since the new wave began. These include Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s “3 Bahadur” trilogy, Omar Hassan’s “Tick Tock”, Usman Riaz’s “The Glassworker/Sheesha Gar”, Uzair Zaheer Khan’s duology of Allahyar films, and “The Donkey King”.
Of these, only the Donkey King has been a verified commercial success. When you factor in the costs, time, and effort taken to create animated films and the limited potential for returns in Pakistan, the math doesn’t add up. It’s simply economically unviable to produce an animated film in Pakistan.
According to Aziz Jindani, the production cost of an animated film is twice that of a live action film. Since 2018, the year the Donkey King came out, the devaluation of the rupee, and a threefold increase in inflation have sent costs skyrocketing.
Manpower and machinery operation costs have gone up, and the cost of electricity has ballooned to six times the original number. Add to that, the dollar denominated subscriptions for licensed animation software (non-negotiable in today’s world), and animation is a very, very costly endeavour.
The most important metric is time. Aziz Jindani is the CEO of Emaar Pakistan. Animation is his passion, not his day job. Thankfully, he is extremely committed to it. He has plans far beyond what he has announced.
For other filmmakers, however, completing a film seems more and more a herculean task in Pakistan. In that regard, Aziz Jindani has been appreciative of the government’s film grants to reduce the economic burden.
Consistent quality films are the only way to make a case for exhibitors to increase the screen count in the country. Grants and tax easing regulations from the government can help a great deal in this regard.
The Donkey King 2!!
While speaking about a local OTT release of the Donkey King, Aziz Jindani told us he has plans for a sequel!
He’s actually waiting to digitally release the original in its native Urdu language in Pakistan when he announces “The Donkey King 2”. For now, his team has struck down more than 1000 illegal uploads of the original on YouTube.
If you want to watch the film legally, here’s a list of platforms it’s available on:
- Tubi TV (English, US Region, Free)
- Peacock (English, US Region, Paid Subscription)
- Plex (English, US Region, Free)
- Netflix (English, African Region, Paid Subscription)
- Amazon Prime Video (English, US and UK Region, Paid Subscription/Free with Ads)
- Google Play Movies (English, US and India Region, Purchase)
My Daddy My Superhero Release Date
As mentioned above, the rising costs of animation have delayed Aziz Jindani’s latest film. However, it’s nearing completion, with about 80% of the total production done. Post-production is also progressing in parallel. He’s confident that, by year’s end, everything will be wrapped up and a release date announced.
Stay tuned to this space for more updates!
