Disney is going to have a lot of Indian animation and cross platform content initiatives rolling out soon. In his keynote Address at the NASSCOM Animation & Gaming Summit, Nitin Chawla of Walt Disney India hinted several times that A lot was in store at Disney with regards to Indian animation content. “In terms of locally created content, our threshold is very high. You will see a lot more content coming out from Disney that will be produced locally for the local market in the coming months and years,” was amongst the several references he made to an imminent Indian content rollout. Also for the fact that Disney, with Roadside Romeo has been doing so already.
“Our Journey in India is fairly recent, we have been here for nearly 4.5 years,” he began his address.
Before talking about the company‘s journey into India, Chawla shared about what brand Disney represents. “Disney is special entertainment with heart and we are always about innovation. Our strength comes from consistently delivering our promise. Every Disney story ends with hope and optimism is the core of the Disney brand. Decency, family entertainment and fun. Ultimately we want audiences and consumers to experience fun.”
“Disney is across 80 different platforms, but from a consumer standpoint it is one, ‘Brand Disney‘. No company has as many vibrant creative engines, as Disney or the ability to leverage successes across so many businesses and in so many places and that‘s what we call the Disney Difference.” shared Chawla.
He gave the example of Lion King which started as a movie, moved on to television, home entertainment, theme parks, publishing, live events, consumer products and digital content. “Creativity is as much about a process, as it is about talent. It’s about creating an environment that fosters creativity and not only in the creative and artistic talent that we recruit but also in the business development and other teams that we nurture. All of our teams have a great appreciation for creativity and story telling.”
“India presented to us 3 big challenges,” he shared. “The first was related to sticking to the core values of the brand. Secondly, India being predominantly a local content market, the challenge was how does one make global brands and content resonate with Indian audiences? Also thirdly, the Indian audience has just started its journey in consuming animation.”
“The answers for us were in reach, relevance and experience. Locally created content for reach. Localization of global content for relevance and technology to provide content with newer experiences.” he added.
“Around 18 months ago Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse were in India. We took them in a sari and Payjama & Kurta and took them to the Taj,” shared Nitin, as he played a Mithai shop interstitial of Mickey & Donald. He also showcased a lot of content that had been localized for the digital platforms. Mickey Mouse Rickshaw Rush for the mobile for the racing genre and an Alladin game for the action adventure genre which did 1.5 Million downloads on the mobile in the last six months.
Talking about the universality of animation content, he showcased a clip from Bolt that gave the audience a chance to experience Nuanced Dubbing, with localized dialogue, accents and nuances. “The way in which you dub animation can bring resonance to local culture.” he shared.
Regarding the leveraging of technology to provide new content experiences, Chawla spoke about their DTH platform initiatives with TATA Sky, where customized games, publishing, 3G content with BSNL including DIGI Comics are working brilliantly. “There will be a lot you will hear about digital mobile content in the coming weeks from us”
On being asked how was the experience for Disney to export its made in India content to global audiences, Chawla shared that it was fairly new that Disney had got into producing Indian content, however he felt that the content would resonate well with global audiences
Crest‘s Madhavan asked when Disney will announce its theme park in India, since it had already done so in China. To which there were no comments from Chawla.
The question on regional language localization of Disney content was answered by Chawla, “It is critical and while I cannot comment, we definitely have that in our focus”
“We are very committed to the Indian market including the animation genre and we will grow this industry” he retorted to another query on was Disney also focusing on nurturing the Indian animation talent pool.