88 Pictures takes on board Aby John as chief operating officer. In a career spanning over a decade and half, John has been a strong force in the CGI field. An engineering and management graduate, he skillfully leveraged his educational experienced into the production management, making him one of the most accomplished professional in the Indian animation industry.
“With Aby’s robust body of experience across production management and studio operations, it makes him the perfect fit to contribute to 88 Pictures’ growth story and play a crucial role in taking the studio to the next level,” said 88 Pictures CEO Milind Shinde.
John will work closely with the management to chalk out the growth strategies for the studio overseeing the overall production aspects and the studio operations. In his role, one of the key areas John will focus on is in strengthening the leadership team and imparting his knowledge and experience in handling large and multiple productions across shows at 88.
88 Pictures is a young studio with a tremendous growth potential and energy. What appealed to john is the fact that not only the team is young and passionate, but hungry and driven to do something spectacular. The culture is one part which makes this place different. John feels that there is solid amalgamation of artistic values, creative freedom, sense of togetherness and responsibility in 88 Pictures’ DNA.
“It’s an exciting time in the animation space and 88 pictures is on the path to set a benchmark in the animation industry. At this phase of my career which puts me into a stage of’ I know what I know’, It was important for me to get associated with an entity where I can not only impart my knowledge but also find out what I don’t know!” commented John. “We have just begun the journey and the world will see what we have to offer for the times to come,” added he.
Prior to joining 88 Pictures, John was one of the core members of Prana Studios serving as head of production managing overall productions across animation, visual FX, ad films and ride films (location-based themed entertainment projects).
Shinde added, “We have successfully completed three years and we are at a stage I call it as ‘metamorphosis stage’. It is from here we are proudly saying that we have arrived. We are in growth phase and have many interesting high projects lined up. We have our very first ‘BIG’ movie starting the production which is on the scale that has not been done in India before. 88 Pictures is at the cusp of the next phase of growth and was looking for strong leadership presence to further develop the studio and produce some of the best work in animation.”
As the new COO, John plans to apply the learnings from across the years to make the journey smoother, strengthen and develop the production management services and build scale to handle more complex and challenging shows. “’Unlearn, Learn and Relearn’ is going to be the core philosophy here that I want to help inculcate and develop further,” John concluded.
88 Pictures have a high end TV series in production and a few other TV shows on floor.