Udigrudi’s history almost ended when we were locked underground in an office, much like what happens in Under Quiet Neath.
I used to tell people that Udigrudi books and movies started life as a Market stall in Aberystwyth market hall back in 1999. It actually began even earlier than that.
It started in the 1980s, when a young boy heard the song Bye Bye, Miss American Pie, and thought, why do people love musicals so much?
This led to a stage play that was never finished. Later, he was invited to write scripts for friends in high school. By the mid-1990s, he and a few friends had set up their first production company and were creating short films on a Hi8 camcorder. Those films have disappeared, due to a dispute between third parties.
In 1997, after moving to Wales, he began using the words Udigrudi and Chanchada to promote the films he wanted to make on free websites like Geocities (or perhaps it was Spree).
Then, in 1999, a few members of the team began making films and selling greeting cards at the market stall under the name “Udigrudi Books and Movies.”
In 2013, they created a limited company, Ptara Ltd, in order to produce their first feature film. Another business, Udigrudi Ltd, was created for other kinds of ventures. These companies closed in 2019. But the trademarks were owned by us and not the corporation, so the Udigrudi name lives on in a new venture.