The two children listening to the story in the beginning are the royal siblings Prince Harshwardhan and Princess Nandini (who are played by Saif Ali Khan and Raima Sen in their grown up avatars). Princess Nandini is mentally challenged and expresses herself chiefly through paintings… It is these paintings that eventually give the prince a clue to the gruesome reality of his mothers death..

Nandini’s paintings used in the film were chiefly painted by Animagicians Prajakta Sansare along with Nilakshi Sankpal..
These were in the form of paintings which showed life in the palace as seen thru the little girl’s eyes and were even painted on kites..

Prajakta has an innocent childlike quality to the way she thinks and paints.. which can be tremendously refreshing.. She didn’t know anymore of the story other than the principal relationships.. so the paintings only reflected the back-story of the royal family.. little things like the birthday party, Diwali celebrations, going to the temple.. of course Ekalavya telling stories etc.. these paintings suited the princesses innocent yet profound perspective perfectly..

We wondered if the title sequence should reflect Nandini’s perspective and art, and worked in that direction as well, but it was felt that the visual style would confuse the audience who would have no context to understand its nature without the aid of some live action in the beginning..
However the imagery in the title sequence was influenced by this line of thought as it boiled down the images in a sequence that could be a reflection of Nandini’s mind.. also the use of colours in some parts owed a debt to the paintings.