Eminent Animation personality Bill Dennis who has been involved with Indian animation since more than six years now, plans to start his new Indian studio by February 2006.
Dennis who co-founded the Kerala based Toonz Animation India in 1999 along with GA Menon was till early last year CEO of the Trivandrum based studio.
Speaking to Animation ‘xpress, Dennis shared,”I am very excited about the opportunity of working in India again with a lot of my old and new friends. We plan to do development as well post production work in India on shows that are developed for a worldwide audience. This is something that I have been wanting to do in India for the past six years”
Dennis further shared the new studio’s plans, saying “The new studio will have a three pronged strategy including outsourced animation work for high visibility US Studios, Repurposing and Licensing of animated properties and development of original content here in India”
KDJS International is the working title of the yet to be named studio which has four founding partners. These include CEO David Kumar (Kumar is an NRI with significant experience in the field of finance), President and Executive Producer Bill Dennis, Creative Head Nancy Juliber (7 time Emmy Awards winner) and Technical Head Jobe Simon (Simon has been involved in Software and related fields).
On being asked about how would the studio get in talented artists given the severe HR crunch that the industry is already facing, Dennis replied,”We will open our own animation school too if that is what it takes. Another option is to tie up with an existing institute franchise and inculcate our quality levels and curriculum”
The location for the studio is in the process of being finalised.