After a gap of 10 years, National-Award winning filmmaker Govind Nihalani will be back next year with a 3D-animation film for kids.

"Now I have turned to animation and will be back after a long time. My film 'Kamlu Happy Happy' is now complete and should get released early next year," Nihalani told reporters.

In town to attend the Kolkata International Film Festival, the 72-year-old said the film is about a baby camel called 'Kamlu' living in a Rajasthan desert. "He wants to fly but is told that it is impossible for camels to fly. I have written this folk tale type of a story on his dream to do the impossible," said Nihalani, who is also producing the film.

It was way back in 2004 that he made his last film 'Dev', which featured Amitabh Bachchan. Winner of six National Film Awards, he is best known for making parallel films like 'Ardh Satya', 'Drohkaal', 'Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa' and 'Aakrosh'.

Recalling his early career days, he said the Bengal trio of Mrinal Sen, Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak were ultimate figures of inspiration. "They were breaking new grounds at that point of time. I knew them personally and had a very warm relationship. They were a great source of inspiration," said the director.

He said working as an assistant to cameraman V K Murthy in commercial films prepared him technically, while working with Shyam Benegal helped him develop sensibilities of a parallel cinema director. "Thats how I developed a synthesis of both," Nihalani said.