My First Kiss
by Shrobontika Dasgupta
‘My First Kiss’ is a story of Little Rani and her imaginary friend, Mr. Chicken. She Introduces him to her topsy turvy world and they start going on adventures together. However, things start to change when Little Rani starts to take Art classes. The Art teacher ‘touches’ her in ways no adult has done before. This story is about her trying to navigate the confusion, fear, silence and trauma a child goes through when sexually abused.
Shrobontika Dasgupta
Markus Duffner
Deepti Chawla
Spamflix
Inflixious Content and Art
Shrobontika Dasgupta is an Indian animation filmmaker and illustrator emerging as a new female voice in contemporary Indian animation. Her work blends hand-drawn storytelling with socially conscious themes.
She graduated in Animation Filmmaking from Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology, India, in 2020. Her graduation film Bideshini (2021) travelled across several international film festivals, introducing her as a promising young talent with a distinctive visual style.
Shrobontika began her career with the award-winning animation studio Eeksaurus, where she worked on animated short films and advertisements. During this time she contributed to independent projects including Kandittund, a 20-minute 2D short that later won the National Film Award in 2023. She also worked as a production coordinator, managing teams, timelines and creative collaboration.
She later moved into children’s storytelling with Jumbaya, a digital platform producing animated storybooks, where she art-directed over twenty books and wrote and illustrated several titles.
In 2024 she began developing her independent short My First Kiss, pitched at Animela Animation Film Festival and Annecy’s India Partner Pitch. The film explores conversations around safe and unsafe touch for children.
Her illustrations appear in eight children’s books on Amazon, and she has created animated work for organisations including the United Nations and CRY – Child Rights and You.