Day 1 : Session 2
Future of animation industry in India
Discussing its future seems to be one of Indian animation industry’s favorite topics. A few may complaint about the topic being repeated once too often, however in a scenario where the present is jittery, it is only in the future that one seeks promise.
And if one were to go by whatever was said in the first plenary session at Nasscom’s Animation India 2005, then the future sure looks promising.
Seminars on Indian animation have always made the future look promising!
The speakers and panelists for the session titled ‘Future of the Indian animation industry’ were Crest Animation CEO AK Madhavan, Animation Bridge CEO Biren Ghose, Maya Entertainment Limited COO Rajiv Sangari (Ex Padmalaya) and Escotoonz head Aspi Mehta.
The first to take to the podium was Madhavan. Talking about how the future was looking good for 3D he said, “The future is 3D , we foresee close to triple digit growth rates in the 3D animation sector. In 5-10 years, 3 out of 10 animated movies, TV series, home videos will be made in India”
Madhavan further stated that globally, producers of animation (which is a people intensive process) were looking at India as a destination to outsource. “The animation industry has evolved from being kids entertainment to complete family entertainment” remarked Madhavan
It was a wonderful sight to see the Crest showreel which had some of the best animation coming out of the country .
“I see Indian studios themselves farming out work in the near future” : Biren Ghose
Taking guard after Madhavan was Animation Bridge Biren Ghose. Ghose is an expert marketeer and one must say to Ghose’s credit that he does come up with the most interesting presentations.
This time around, Ghose emphasised on the competencies that were needed in Indian animation studios and also some of the pain points.
Competencies that are needed
– Multiple /Eclitec viewpoints, business models, revenue streams
– Humble speculation
– Unexploited opportunities, beyond customer led
– Pace of change in unlearning
– Ability to synthesise
– Financial (deep pocket) intervention
(critical mass comes in an investment of a couple of million dollars)
Pain Points
– Gap between expectations and performance
– resources substitute for creative and management
– How much will you pay me and then can you pay me?
– Single revenue stream – service/work for hire or original Indian themes
– Understanding content value (financing / selling)
– Talent Pool (shallow) – do not dive (talent import)
– Island vs collaboration
– Lacking big ideas & heavy hitters
Ghose informed the elite gathering that 3-4 major VCs were combing the Indian animation industry and were looking at 6-7 studios in India.
Putting the cost of creating a pilot for an animated TV show at around 50,000 to 1,50,000 USD Ghose stated that,” Offshore outlocation is an imperative and several low cost locations are available. India, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Phillipines, Hungary, Ireland, Australia, China etc”
Crystalgazing into the future Biren saw India go up the value chain,”I see Indian studios themselves farming out work in the near future” he said.
“Orders are coming in, output is a big question mark” : Rajiv Sangari
Talking after Biren was Ex Padmalaya animation head Rajiv Sangari. Freshly inducted at Maya Entertainment as COO, Sangari stuck close to the real picture. He raised pertinent points such as
PERTINENT POINTS
– Orders are coming in, output is a big question mark
– Success ratio in animation deliveries is very small
– Not more than 60 movies in India in a year with more than 5 to 6 mins of VFX
– Canada, France, UK have Government support, India has none
Sangari also had a few positive indications to point out –
POSITIVE INDICATIONS
– 110 channels in India. VFX work for TV shows have been growing
– Advertising – Character animation and VFX
– Gaming
– Online
(1,30,000 people in LA, Hollywood are working on online content)
“Today we have 20,000 animation professionals in the country, tomorrow we need 3,00,000” : Aspi Mehta
Concluding the session was Escotoonz’ A D Mehta. Beginning his presentation with a very interesting graph, (which showed a Palm and Palmistry) to arrive at the topic of predicting the future, Mehta threw light on some less explored avenues in animation.
Untouched + new market segment
– CGI Internet based entertainment and CD/DVD Rom
– Gaming
– Simulations (Medical, Engineering, Architectural, Educational)
– Animatics for Silver Screen, Complete digital film pre pro
-Mobile video market
An interesting observation that Mehta made was that while 90% of the total consumption for animation is in the North American and Canadian markets, 90% of the production work is done in Asia.
Mehta also warned that the media created hype about the big salaries in animation were harmful for the industry, describing the issue of salaries and wages as a major concern for the present and future of the industry. He also spoke about R&D and marketing, areas which he felt were lacking in investments by studios.
One major overhead and time burner that studios in India face is due to the constant retraining of fresh recruits. Blaming the lack of sufficient manpower base of talented people along with the poaching activities rampant in the industry, Mehta stressed on building and retaining a core team.
Not to be outdone by his fellow speakers when it came to speaking big about the future, Mehta said his big one saying,”Today we have 20,000 animation professionals in the country, tomorrow we need 3,00,000″
