Founded back in 1962, Shemaroo Entertainment has grown tremendously and are now one of the oldest and leading entertainment companies in India. The company also ventured into the animation space with Bal Ganesh which they co-produced with Astute Media Vision. And recently they have started their own institute Shemaroo Institute of Film and Technology (S.I.F.T) to provide quality and skilled professionals who would be the driving force of the film industry in future.
The institute currently offers six courses – Film and Video editing, VFX, Digital Intermediate Colour Grading, Digital Restoration, Sound Editing and Digital Marketing. AnimationXpress got in touch with Shemaroo Studio, VP, Hemant Karani to know more about the various courses being offered at the institute, the reason behind Shemaroo coming with their own institute and how’s it going to benefit the students.
“We realised that every time we recruited a new set of people to execute the job, we had to spend a lot of time training them. Students do have knowledge, but they lack hands-on-experience. As we have a ready infrastructure, we decided to start our own institute where we can train students who want to pursue Career in this field,” says Karani. “At ‘SIFT’, students not only get theoretical knowledge, but also work on live projects to have better understanding of their job.”
SIFT incorporates latest technology, updated curriculum as per the latest trends and hands on training on live projects. Students have 24 x 7 access to the studio’s live working environment and latest equipments within the state of the art studio facilities and post production suite of high end machines. And these courses are being taught by the industry professionals.
Karani further adds, “We have expert trainers in the field of post production who are leading exponents in their specialised skills. Students are trained under these experts who have been a part of the industry with years of experience into Film Production.”
Since post production is an essential part of filmmaking, SIFT not only teaches technical aspects on latest software’s and machines, but also gives wide exposure of professional studio work lifestyle to students. Along with that students get an opportunity to test waters as they offer paid internship after successfully completing the course.
Coming to the visual effects course. The institute offers full fledged VFX programs including 2D, 3D and graphic contents. “We are the only authorised training centre in Mumbai for ‘Foundry NUKE software,” expounds Karani. “NUKE has wide prospect in the industry. There are multiple job opportunities for students not only in studio, but also in channels and production houses.” Modular courses will also be offered as per the student’s needs.
Since the entertainment industry is consistently growing at a rapid race, there’s an increasing need for skilled professionals and SIFT is bridging the gap for the same. The institute provides training along with internship in their respective choice of course giving them experience and not being considered as ‘fresher’. This way SIFT enables students to attain maximum knowledge making them ready to face the day to day challenges of the industry.
But it’s not easy to set up an institute but since Shemaroo has been in the industry of post production for years now, it was easy for them to take this up. “The entire motive was to have professionally trained people who even have exposure to the real world of post production. With our training style and internship offering before they step out in real world, we make them confident and ready professionals to face actual challenges.”
The students are offered paid internship for two months and once they evaluate the performances post their internship, job is offered at their own studios. Apart from that placement assistance service is also provided.
Finally parting his thoughts on the AVGC industry, Karani mentions that the animation, visual effects, gaming and comic sector is a highly potent niche area with substantial growth predicted to reach great figures till 2018. India contributes ‘6 per cent’ of the global animation, VFX and post production work that include top of the class, high quality, award winning works which are gaining steady grounds in the global arena.
“This industry thrives on technology, innovation and skilled personnel and needs more creative talent and skilled professionals with the number of films being released in the industry, and for that, we are trying to impart the required knowledge to our students at SIFT,” ends Karani.
