Toonz Media Group’s Animation Masters Summit (AMS) 2022 opened for its 23th edition. Following the theme of this year’s summit of ‘Creativity for Good’, the virtual event kicked off with the address of the company’s CEO P Jayakumar welcoming the sponsors, panellists, delegates, media partners and attendees to the summit.
“Animation Master Summit has grown and transformed into a platform that celebrates not just animation but the entire gamut of entertainment. With the theme Creativity For Good, we believe that creativity is inherently a divine talent and history has witnessed the power of creativity, which enabled artists to transform community, society, and lives. I welcome the masters for this year’s summit as well as the legends of the industry whom we are going to honour for their unparalleled contributions Aabid Surthi and Biren Ghose,” said the CEO.
He also called upon Google India country head and VP Sanjay Gupta to deliver the keynote speech. Gupta shared, “I am delighted to be a part of this unique gathering of learners, practitioners and masters of animation. Digital platforms created a massive revolution in content creation and opened doors for many new opportunities. Animation has created a generation of highly entertained and engaging contents across the world maintaining the cost efficiency and high quality. Animation industry is ready to take the next leap from being a content producer to becoming global IP holders. Creativity can move the centre of gravity of the animation industry overseas to India. I am excited to see the animation sector taking its rightful share in building India’s 100 billion dollar industry by 2030.”
FICCI AVGC chairman and Punnaryug Artvision founder Ashish Kulkarni announced the Legend of Indian Animation Award (conferred upon Aabid Surti) and Special Contribution to Indian Animation Industry Award (bestowed upon Biren Ghose).
Speaking about the legacy of Surti, Kulkarni shared, “For six decades, Surti has been actively involved in creating several memorable cartoons, comic series and novels. His works were highly creative and engaging and always held a strong underlying message to the audience. He created many iconic characters like Bahadur, Inspector Azad, Doctor Chinchoo, Dabbuji and more. He was awarded with a National Award for his popular novel Teesri Aankh. Sruthi is also an environmentalist who taught people to conserve water and also educated people through his works.”
For Ghose, Kulkarni added, “The award for Special Contribution to Indian Animation was bestowed on one of my dear friend Biren Ghose, who has been walking with us side by side in all the ups and downs Indian has seen in building the AVGC sector. Biren is a person who loves entertainment by heart and a great team builder who delivers fantastic high quality world class projects around the world through Technicolor India with 6000+ employees from India.”
The Toonz Media Group also played a video montage for the honour of these two legends. Accepting the award, Surthi said, “I would like to extend my gratitude to Jayakumar for honouring me with this prestigious award and for organising this non-profit Animation Master Summit for the last 23 years. My parents always wanted me to be an engineer, doctor, lawyer or politician as I am dumbo in studies but destiny has different plans for me. I created the first Indian superhero Bahadur and longest running Indian comic series Dabbuji. These things never got me currency but it helped me achieve two things one is happiness and another is the Legend of Indian Animation Award.”
Ghose exclaimed, “I am very much honoured and delighted that the jury of Animation Master Summit 2022 has selected me to receive the Special Contribution to Indian Animation award. Toonz Media Group and Ashish Kulkarni have walked far to make our industry reach where it is today. I accept this award with continued commitment to make the AVGC grow further and pledge my continued support to the artists and technicians who work tirelessly to deliver the creative contents.”
AMS 2022 is being held from 23-27 May via Zoom.