Bangalore which is universally known for its IT prowess is also a preferred destination for the Animation, VFX, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) sector and now with Karnataka Government planning a new policy for the industry, it is all set to become the preferred destination for International and Local projects. Already several Hollywood biggies including the DreamWorks have set up their studios in Bangalore and some of the worlds to productions are conceptualized and created in Bangalore. The Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics Industry in India has achieved a significant growth over the past few years with a CAGR of 26% during 2006-2010 and is now Rs.646 billion (2010) as established by PWC.
In this backdrop, the department of IT, BT and ST Govt. of Karnataka and the Association of Bangalore Animation Industry (ABAI) join hands for the second consecutive year to extend their co-operative for the AVG industry in organizing the unique summit on Animation, Visual Effects and Gaming featuring the leadership of the industry – (KAVG SUMMIT 2011) at NIMHANS CONVENTION CENTER at Wilson Garden, Bangalore today.
“Karnataka, thanks to Bangalore, has been an excellent example of growth in the AVGC sector and a great pedigree of international MNCs has chosen to set up and expand their studios here. We see this as just the beginning of a much larger eco-system, which is still in its early maturity phase, and ABAI partnering with several stakeholders and industry would like to evolve this considerably with a strategic policy. The purpose of the summit is to showcase Bangalore as the pioneer in collaboration and innovation between the government, industry players and academic institutes in the AVG segment. In fact the summit is meant to serve as an eye opener and be the catalyst in creating a “collaborative enterprise” between these various constituencies,” says Balakrishna, President of ABAI.
According to him, an exclusive policy to animation, VFX, Gaming and Comics will help the industry and increasingly the trend towards interconnectivity between economies, enterprises, societies and governments is giving rise to a new order of development. As new expectations of markets shift the measure of value, India and other emerging economies play an increasing role in fulfilling those needs. The AVG industry is facing a huge shift all over the globe.
He further says, “The needs of the AVG sector are quite unique from those of its IT and IT enabled counterparts. For starters the AVG industry started a few decades after the IT industry and hence the support and tax holidays etc that the IT world enjoyed in relatively less challenging times is not something the AVG s has sector has fully utilized. AVG is creatively lead production process powered by very high technology, which is rapidly changing, both in consumer preferences and in new technology paradigms and studios have to keep up with new releases of technology products and solutions that are constantly being innovated. The time horizon to monetize investments on capital expenditure is very short and hence utilization is a key to maximize returns. This calls for a need for an ecosystem to have many elements simultaneously available at hand; talent; sales pipelines; training on new software and workflow tools; power; image processing infrastructure; storage; connectivity on an international scale [TPN’s] etc.”
The industry leaders believe that a new separate policy on Animation, VFX, Gaming and Comics helps create a platform for brand building and business development as experts believe India has not even 1% of the Global Business, Karnataka will benefit from being the 1st mover and attracting a huge pipeline of work if it moves now.
Balakrishna also says the new policy will help streamline creative-lead industry process involving Visualization, Film Direction, Design of Characters and the Story itself, Voice Recording/Dubbing, Music, Editing of Audio and Video apart from the actual production with the help of Software tools and infrastructure including data centers and hardware. The policy will attract investment from major international players.
Karnataka currently has more than 20 training institutes imparting AVGC related training through more than 60 campuses across the state. We have been informed that currently more than 10,000 students are undergoing training (study done in 2010). This figure is likely to increase to 25,000 by the next two years. More than 2000 professionals are employed in the education and animation production units in the state apart from web and content development
Karnataka AVG industry has yet another advantage of having some of the major suppliers of software tools and technologies to the Industry such as HP, AMD, NVIDIA, etc. located within Karnataka and more specially Bengaluru.
“This summit will serve to strengthen the Governments initiatives for the fast growth of the AVG industry in Karnataka and to ensure the State to be a leader in the Indian scenario.” said Sri. M N Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary of IT, BT and ST Govt. of Karnataka. “We have seen an overwhelming growth in the visual effects, gaming and animation industry and are proud that the state is now contributing to some of the world’s best products in this area”, he added.
“Bangalore is emerging as a strong epicenter for the AVG community. The State lends itself to being a great environment for artists’ and technicians in the creative field to live and work. We are sure that with the support of the Government, Bangalore will continue to grow not only in its present eminence in serving Hollywood, but also start partnering with regional and local initiatives ,” Said Biren Ghose. Country Head, Technicolor Indian and Chairman, ABAI.
Biren said “While the initiative has been spearheaded by me and several members of ABAI, we had received great support and encouragement from all our industry partners including DreamWorks, R & H, Big Animation, DQ Entertainment, Crest, TATA Elxi, Dhruva, MPC, Xentrix, Aiga and Manipal University among others and I also thank my colleagues from Technicolor for their support to this initiative.”