The Animation Track at the Asia TV Forum 2006 (ATF) will feature a special ninety minute session specifically devoted to the Indian animation Industry. The session is being organized by FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry) which is taking part at ATF for the first time.
The session will be commenced with a welcome address by Kunal Dasgupta, Co-Chair, FICCI Entertainment Committee and CEO, Sony Entertainment Television. Panelists include Munjal Shroff, COO & Director, Graphiti Multimedia, P Jaya Kumar, CEO, Toonz Animation India, Rajesh Turakhia, CEO, Maya Entertainment Limited and Sudhish Rambhotla, CMD, Colorchips India Limited. The session is to be moderated by Ashish Kulkarni, Co-Chair, FICCI Animation & Gaming Forum and CEO, Anirights Infomedia Pvt. Ltd.
Speaking to Animation Xpress.com, about the FICCI session at ATF, Sumeet Gupta, Senior Assistant Director, FICCI shared, “We are doing a FICCI session on Indian Animation industry, with theme of animated film production in India. Today, India is recognized as a fast growing Animation Hub by global players. India, which is the land of 5000 years old strong culture and heritage, has great advantage in terms of content. With skilled, English speaking talent pool, India is poised to do even better. The topic of discussion would be to explore what India has to offer to the World, in terms of animated feature film”
“FICCI has been instrumental in projecting the promise and potential of Indian Animation Industry at various international platforms. We also did a similar exercise at last year`s MIPCOM. Our idea is to explore possibilities for Indian companies in terms of co-production, content sales and acquisition and other strategic ventures. We had been participating at other festivals like ANNECY, Cartoons on the Bay etc. This is our first time at ATF, Singapore. We hope it would be fruitful for us and our members” added Sumeet.
Ashish Kulkarni shared, “This is an appropriate time to talk about the feature films opportunity and the development of domestic and Asian content. ATF would be the right platform to discuss the capabilities and opportunities to do the next logical thing in animation that is feature films. It will give us an opportunity to exchange our ideas and meet the counterparts to explore the potential and appetite of Asian Markets. The FICCI Animation & Gaming forum has consistently looked at positioning Indian Animation and Gaming in MIPCOM as well as ATF”
According to Munjal Shroff of Graphiti, The FICCI Panel on Animated Film Production will provide a window to other Asian studio on the capabilities and current projects that are underway. “With the recent success of the animated movie Hanuman a lot of animated movies have been planned in India. In order to ensure that the success of Hanuman was not a flash in the pan we need to make sure that the quality of these films will have to be good to find a continued audience for this genre”
“Moving forward the Indian animation industry has to learn a lot lessons to be able to produce films to find their place in the international markets. I think if Asian studios collaborate then they can produce a world class quality film for the international market. We have the advantage of lower cost of production as compared to our North American counterparts. But what we need to focus on is the story telling and scripts that will appeal to audiences at large” he added.
The member companies at ATF from India will be Sony Entertainment Television, Anirights Info media Pvt. Ltd., Graphiti Multimedia, Toonz Animation, Maya Entertainment Limited and Colorchips India Limited.
“We will continue to promote Indian Animation Industry at various forums. There are more plans, which will unfold in future” concluded Sumeet.
