Outdoor Kid

Goethe Insitut and German Consulate General Kolkata

Every year, thousands of young professionals from India embark on a journey to Germany, supported by the Skilled Immigration Act. But what does this journey truly look like? This project by Goethe Institut Kolkata and German Consulate General Kolkata brought 10 stories to life through short animated films. In short episodes, everyday situations, cultural challenges, and joyful moments of arrival are portrayed. Developed by artists from Germany and India, the films are designed for social media, pre-departure programs, and welcome centres under the EU-AMIF initiative. You can view the entire project here.

We had the chance to animate Piyali Bhattacharjee’s story. Moving from a lush island in India to a landlocked city in Germany, discover how Piyali’s relationship with the outdoors changes in unexpected ways.

Special thanks to Piyali Bhattacharjee for sharing her story

Directed and animated by Deepti Megh
Additional Rough animation by Oorjit BS and Saket Ghaisas
Sound Design by Saachi Rajadhyaksha
Voice over by Piyali Bhattacharjee
Piyali interviewed by Parvathi Ramanathan
Project Coordinators: Prachi Singh, Antara Dasgupta

Antara and Prachi reached out to us with the opportunity to be part of a 10 filmmaker cohort, creating 10 diverse stories about the experience of moving to Germany. The other animators on the project are Maren Amini, Bianca Scali, Triparna Maiti, Uta Rottgers, Isha Mangalmurti, Siddhi Vartak, Suchana Saha, Shadab Shayegan and Trickmisch. People who responded to an open call from Goethe were interviewed by Parvathi Ramanathan, and these 1-1.5 hour long interviews were shared with us. Each animator resonated with different themes, and adapted these into short animated films.

As part of the research process, we also got the chance to travel to Germany in May 2025, where we spoke to the Welcome centres, several Indian migrant communities and also Dr Johanna Hildebrandt at The German Centre for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM). All of these conversations, and our own personal experience in Germany informed how we approached the films and the visuals.

It was important for Deepti to have a sense of personal connection to the theme. Piyali’s story of discovering the joy in movement and the outdoors as an adult resonated with Deepti, who was also never an ‘outdoor kid’ growing up, and discovered a new side to herself when she began running in 2017. Piyali’s life in the small town of Aalen in many ways resembles Deepti’s life in Goa.

Deepti began the process by narrowing down the central theme of the short film from the various things that Piyali had discussed with Parvathi- such asraising a child in Germany and her experience practicing German through her son‘s picture books, her initial jobs and challenges in Germany, how Germany allows for her to have an identity beyond motherhood, vacations in Germany, and the Government support for parental leave in Germany.

She then had a conversation with Piyali about some of these things, with focus on her life in Aalen and her relationship with the outdoors. Both these interviews were then edited down, being mindful of silences that allowed the viewer to take it all in, to approximately a 3 minute voice over track. Saachi came on as a collaborator on the sound design and helped clean up the audio quality, so that phone recordings could serve as the voice over for the film. Storyboards and Character designs were shared with Piyali and the Goethe team for approval, post which, the film entered production.