After a grand first day full of informative masterclasses and transformative sessions, the second and final day of Animation & More (AM) Summit 2024 wrapped up with splendour. Attendees across the span of two days witnessed insightful panel discussions, fireside chats, presentations, masterclasses and more.
Organised by AnimationXpress, AM Summit is the biggest annual celebration of the Indian animation industry, held this year on 3 and 4 September at NESCO in Mumbai. Each year, the conference sees a lively gathering of students alongside delegates from the global animation ecosystem, including broadcasters, brands, agencies to major studios and technology companies. The Animation Creators Pitch was one of the key attractions this year.
Check out all photos from Day 1 here.
The second day of the AM Summit commenced with a keynote address by Imagica Infos Japan president and representative director Tatsuya Maeda. The keynote Crafting Iconic Animated Worlds shed light on the global impact of anime, and revealed storytelling techniques that make animation memorable and technological innovations that drive the industry forward. Maeda introduced the audience to “light anime,” an upcoming style of anime which is created by cutting manga and adding colour and motion to it. He revealed that light anime reduces production costs yet retains the quality of imaginative storytelling as traditional anime. This style is said to tap into the vast amount of manga content already available.
In Building Bridges: Successful International Collaborations, speakers shed light on accessing and leveraging government grants and subsidies to fund their animated projects. The panel comprised Hornbill Studios CEO Srinivas Raju, Punnaryug Artvision founder and FICCI AVGC-XR forum chairman Ashish Kulkarni, 88 Pictures co-founder and COO Aby John, Studio56 Animation co-founder and director Gauri Sriram, Hi-Tech Animation CEO Ashish Thapar, Mogo Studios assistant general manager Sachitha Kalingamudali. Kulkarni said that India-based shows being produced overseas is a landmark achievement for the animation industry. He talked about positioning India as a global hub for co-production. “We have tried to deliver more than we could and make a space for us,” said Thapar, highlighting the need to overdeliver to be recognised as one of the best studios for worldwide co-productions. The session delved into recruiting and training talent, learning to negotiate leading to successful collaborations, getting a pipeline together, and making sure the team is versatile enough to handle diverse animation projects. Raju said, “Right negotiations happen when a partner sees the value in working with us.”
Check out all photos from Day 2 here
During the fireside chat The Continuous Success of Anime Among Young Fans (ages 2-14), Disney and Star kids and infotainment business head spoke to Dream Theatre founder and CEO Jiggy George about the burgeoning success and popularity of Japanese animation. George shared, “Anime has three big pillars – art styles, themes, and imaginative storytelling.” Prabhu touched upon the slice-of-life genre of anime, which usually consists of relatable characters going through daily life situations and is family-oriented. “We saw an opportunity to expand our slate with anime content and took it,” she said, highlighting how Disney’s Hungama TV channel has a wide range of anime content like Doraemon and Pokemon among others. She touched upon the Kodomo genre of anime, how it caters to kids and young adults, and how localisation and dubbing have helped widen the consumer base.
Leading brand and advertising agencies have begun exploring the use of animation for communication, licensing and merchandising models. In Brands’ Romance with Animation, Madison Media Sigma CEO Vanita Keswani, Hero Electric Vehicles marketing and corporate communications head Manu Kumar, Women in Cloud board of advisor and Veeam India CMO Kushagra Sharma and Leo Burnett South Asia CCO Sachin Kamble spoke to AnimationXpress founder, chairman and editor-in-chief Anil NM Wanvari about the criteria that attract brands to animated properties and how these partnerships help target specific audiences. The theme of the session was perfectly encapsulated with animated ads from Birla Opus Paints, Vodafone’s Zoozoo series, and WcDonald’s Film. “It’s easier to explain the workings of an electric car in a medium like animation,” said Kumar, highlighting the capabilities that animation offers. The session touched upon McDonald’s’ recent success with an anime-themed outlet in Mumbai, and creating animated mascots for marketing and brand communication. The speakers agreed that studios like DreamWorks and Pixar have successfully demonstrated that emotions can be effectively conveyed through animation.
Warner Bros. Discovery South Asia head of kids cluster Uttam Pal Singh took to the stage in Lightning Platform Showcase to speak on the company’s innovative IPs, successful co-productions, and acquired shows aired. He described the origin of WBD’s first efforts to bring animated content to India with the launch of Cartoon Network in 1995, Pogo in 2004, and Discovery Kids in 2015 and how it allowed animated kids’ content to be mainstream in the country. Another success story for WBD was Cartoon Network’s Lamput which ran for four seasons and was even nominated for an International Emmy award. He focused on successful local IPs such as Little Singham, Chhota Bheem, Fukrey Boyz, and Jay Jagannath, highlighted the launch of telemovies on Pogo like Chhota Bheem Shakti Astra ki Khoj, Multiverse me Dobara, Chhota Bheem Kirmada ka Keher, including Chhota Bheem-Little Singham crossover films like Aag aur Pani ki Takkar. Singh mentioned the addition of anime content to Cartoon Network’s vast catalogue of shows with titles like Dragon Ball Z, One Piece and My Hero Academia.
In another session From TV to Digital: Innovating the Taarak Mehta Brand, the creator of the popular TV serial Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah – Asit Kumarr Modi – engaged in a fireside chat with showrunner, director, filmmaker, and Small Town Boys Studios founder Alok Sharma. Modi explained how his company Neela Mediatech expanded the Taarak Mehta franchise to animated shows, edutainment videos, mobile games, brand merchandise and will soon explore mediums such as Web3 and metaverse. He touched upon how the franchise has retained its core values such as family, morals, entertainment, and humour. “Developing an IP and utilising it properly is essential for a creator or an animation studio,” he said.
The next session, Crafting Lego Stories from Script to Screen by Zebu Animation Studios guided viewers through their creative journey. The session, led by the studio’s founder and creative director Veerendra Patil, focused on how Zebu breathes life into its Lego universes by combining technical mastery with imaginative storytelling. Patil started off with showcasing the studio’s showreel on the work done for Lego, for franchises like Star Wars and Batman. He spoke about the studio’s upcoming musical animation film Piece by Piece (which tells the life story of singer/songwriter and record producer Pharrell Williams — from his childhood in Virginia to his success in the music and fashion industry) in Lego artstyle. He said that a large portion of the movie was made in Karnataka where they took a traditional approach rather than a previsualisation approach with the film. He said, “Technology is not a constraint as long as we focus on art and storytelling.” The studio collaborated with Amar Chitra Katha to create the animated show The Adventures of Suppandi, which is a fan-favourite character from Tinkle Comics.
The session FutureCraft: Where Technology Fuels Creativity, highlighted the synergy between technology and artistic creativity that fuels the animation industry. The session included iRealities founder and managing director Prasad Ajgaonkar, Saffronic India studio director Prabhakar Sambadan, AMD inside sales, strategy and value business head Chetan Hingu, Media & Entertainment Skills Council CEO Mohit Soni, Women in Cloud brand ambassador and Insight India head of marketing Unnati Gajjar in conversation with Occult VFX Studios and Paperboat Design Studios co-founder/director Aashish Mall. The audience got to know how advancements in computing power, graphics processing, and software innovation are changing the animation landscape. The speakers discussed multiple aspects of the topic, including whether the future of humanity involving technology will be either utopian or dystopian, the evolution of computing, technology being an enabler for humanity, the rise of generative AI and its potential for animators, and more. They emphasised on learning the creative side of animation rather than software and tools, and advised the artists to be adaptable, keep upskilling, and have an eye for learning more.
Imtiaz Ali’s Netflix film Amar Singh Chamkila brought animation to live-action cinema with the help of animation and VFX studio philmCGI. To understand this blend, AM Summit 2024 curated Animating Chamkila: A Dynamic Storytelling Tool in Live-Action Cinema – a session featuring an in-depth look at how animation was used as a storytelling tool in the film. The film’s DOP Sylvester Fonseca and philmCGI creative director Kanchi Kanani spoke to writer Yash Thakur about using three different animation styles for the narrative, and how it was a well-thought-out and executed idea. Kanani explained that integrating animation into Chamkila enabled the director Ali to effectively portray the myth and legend of the singer-songwriter Chamkila. Fonseca expressed, “It’s so real and unreal at the same time. The film has proved that integration of animation into live-action works.” The speakers detailed how various challenges like transitioning from live-action to animation scenes, and getting the likeness of actor Diljeet Dosanjh didn’t stop them from continuing this approach. Kanani encouraged artists to try their hand at integrating animation into their live-action projects to create a unique art style.
In the final panel for the day, IP, Innovations and Monetisation, speakers discussed the strategies and practices that studios can utilise to remain relevant, grow, and further innovate their IPs. The speakers included Bhooshan Junior founder and CEO Sarath Bhooshan, Reliance Animation Studio CEO Tejonidhi Bhandare, Green Gold Animation founder and CEO Rajiv Chilaka, ChuChu TV founder and CEO Vinoth Chandar, Purple Turtle creator Manish Rajoria and Graphiti Multimedia founder Munjal B. Shroff in conversation with Cosmos Maya international division COO Adi Shayan. The session explained the various revenue models, monetisation strategies, and creative approaches to IP creation and utilisation, and how IPs can be expanded. They agreed that the key ingredients for a successful IP are having a great idea, executing it well, and distributing it widely. They advised the artists to consider the target audience, market demands, audience engagement, monetisation avenues, asked them to venture into L&M, balance creativity and commercial appeal, diversify content, get OTT and other distribution deals, acquire third-party content, and more. Chilaka asked the audience to consume local content and support Indian creators. “We should always celebrate each other’s success,” he said.
The two-day summit concluded with the grand celebratory segment – the Ann Awards 2024. Click here to check out all the winners of the fifth edition of India’s most prestigious animation awards.
AM Summit 2024’s knowledge partner was AMD. It was co-powered by Hungama, 88 Pictures and ElevenLabs. The networking partner was Maxon; associate partners were Autodesk and Zebu Animation Studios; lanyard and badges partner were PowerKids Entertainment; and the country partners were JETRO and MDEC; the state partner was KeralaIT and Centre For Development of Imaging Technology (CDIT). The industry partners of the event were Huion, Micro Star International (MSI), Reliance Animation, Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah Rhymes, Wackytoon Studio, Women in Cloud, TVPaint, Tron School of Animation and XPPen. The outdoor partner was Bright Outdoor Media, community partner was Asifa India, skill partner was MESC (Media and Entertainment Skills Council), and the festival partner was DigiCon6 Asia. AM Summit 2024 was executed by ITV 2.0.
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