“We have included separate tracks for Animation and Gaming at the NASSCOM Animation & Gaming India 2007. We are also conducting an Indian Animation Super Pitch 2007 as part of the summit”
What is the focus of this year‘s Nasscom Animation & Gaming summit?
This is the 4th Edition of NASSCOM Animation & Gaming India (2007). During these four years, the animation and gaming industry has made considerable impact globally on its aspirations / capabilities. Whereas Indian companies have started bagging contracts for movie pipe lines, creating IP and greater value addition for outsourced work, gaming companies are looking at the massive opportunities that are opening up in the domestic market. The focus this year therefore is to highlight the opportunities that await the industry and strategies to gain the ‘Winning Edge‘ which is the theme for the event.
What are the new features and initiatives that have been taken around the event?
There have been a couple of radical changes that have been incorporated at NASSCOM Animation & Gaming India 2007. These include (a) a separate track for gaming in view of huge opportunities that present themselves in the global and domestic market and (b) Inclusion of Animation ‘Super Pitch‘ as a part of NASSCOM‘s endeavour to promote creation, development and maturing of Indian animation industry.
What is the program outline and in terms of the panel sessions, which are some of the new topics that you are bringing into the discussion?
The event will be inaugurated by Mr.Ramalinga Raju, Chairman NASSCOM. The program includes key notes by Ronnie Screwala, UTV; Rajesh Sawhney, Reliance Entertainment; Paul Steed, Exigent3D; and Shiraz Akmal, THQ amongst others.
Sessions in animation track include
(a) Building a 3D feature pipe line
(b) made in India IP for local and global audience
(c) Programming for Indian kids-Trends & highlights
(d) Financing Content
(e) Value addition through VFX-Creative perspective
(f) India‘s position of regional competitiveness
(g) Strategies & roadmap for HRD / training.
Sessions in the gaming track include
(a) Gaming -Will India follow China & Korea?
(b) Making transition from animation to gaming
(c) Status of mobile gaming
(d) Console Gaming – Yes or no for India and (e) panel discussion on ‘Building businesses around mobile gaming‘.
The event will be addressed by top personalities from animation and gaming industry from within India and outside. (A.K.Madhavan, Ashish Kulkarni, Tapaas Chakravarti, Venkatesh Roddam, Nachiket Pantvaidya, Arnab Chowdary, Nina Jaipuria, Zareena Mehta, Mahesh Ramanathan, Muslim Kapasi, Amit Anand, Biren Ghose, Suresh Seetharaman, Siddhartha Jain, Oindrila Ghosh, Aparna Bhosle, Aditya Tripathi, Rahul Khanna, Sandeep Singhal, Avinash Bajaj, RajivChilakalpudi, Rajesh Turakhia, Anand Parthasarathy, Chetan, Ravi Gupta, Darlie O‘Koshy, Rajesh Rao, Quetin Staes-Polet, Rohit Anand, Cindy Armstrong, Jesse Rapczak, Manvendra Shukul, Michel Kripalani, Krishna Durbha, Arun Gupta, Vishal Gondal, Salil Bhargava, Ajay Khanna, Chris Whaley, Vivek Kulkarni, Jayant Sharma, Tony Garcia, etc.)
What is the Animation Super Pitch all about?
At NASSCOM we realise that Intellectual Property ceation and original content are essential for the Industry to move up the value chain. We are commited to developing that ecosystem. As part of that commitment, it is our endeavor to promote the creation, development and maturing of the ecosystem of Indian animation industry and the forthcoming NASSCOM Animation & Gaming India 2007, has specially included a ‘Super Pitch‘ session.
As the ecosystem evolves and the tempo of original content creation increases, for any project to be green lit depends on how well it is thought through and pitched to the stakeholders‘ viz. potential broadcaster/ producer/ distributor.
NASSCOM would like to promote the interests of Indian content creators and those who aspire to understand and hone his skills in pitching his offering. The whole exercise of thinking your project through in an objective manner and then sharing the various elements that makes your show unique is what the super pitch will enable the participants to practice.
The objective of the super pitch is to breathe confidence into aspirants who wish to create original content even as their show is exposed to a large audience of stakeholders and decision makers.
Do we also have an exhibition floor this year? Any details you could share about the same?
We have included exhibition floor this year with very limited number of stalls.
Additional comments?
The event is being held at Hyderabad International Convention Centre for the first time. The event was very well received last year and the response this year has been encouraging. More interestingly, we have received registrations from Australia, China, Singapore, UK and USA. We have also received queries from private equity, VC‘s, financial institutions. And above all the event has become the annual summit where the entire Indian animation, VFX and gaming industry converges and we look forward to the same happening this year too!
