With Indian animation taking the front seat, the scenario of this industry can be seen changing. Not just limited to kids’ cluster anymore, animation can be seen growing, covering the major areas of work. As a form, animation is eye-catchy with a higher potential of acting as a reminder. Considering the target market and the growing interest of audience in animation, marketers are ready to promote their product or service using the animation technique along with live-action.
The year 2018 opened new avenues for the Indian animators and paved way for some very good creations which are on their way to us. While talking to AnimationXpress, Vaibhav More Films founder Vaibhav More said, “We celebrated a successful year since we shifted to Open Source Software.” The company had the privilege to work with brands such as Vodafone, Zee Network, Delhi Capitals, Fevicol, Fasttrack to name a few, and on movies like 2.0. Vaibhav More Films also won six prestigious Promax BDA awards in various categories for the promo film created for Nick India.
With the growth on platforms, the content creation has increased manifold, leaving scope for independent animators in India. The growing content certainly lead to demand for more CG and VFX artists. With the production of Lion King in Bangalore along with successful movies like 2.0 and Baahubali 2, Indian film industry is making noise internationally.
Platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime are readily accepting the good Indian content, creating way for more CG and motion graphic artists.
Vaibhav Studios founder Vaibhav Kumaresh thinks that the year 2018 gave positive news of the upcoming release of three animated Indian films in 2019. Goopi Gawaiya Baagha Bajaiya a beautiful musical will release theatrically in March 2019, Chhota Bheem Kung fu Dhamaka in its new 3D avatar is slotted for June and Gitanjali Rao’s hand painted film Bombay Rose will hopefully be exhibited around August.
Kumaresh finds these three films intriguing and hopes that these connect with the audiences quite well. He has been immersed in the production of their in-house feature film Return of the Jungle. Over the past few years, the studio has cut down on the commercial work and is instead focusing more on creating own ideas, pitching them to clients and producing them into films.
Lamput for Cartoon Network is anyways an international hit now! The stop motion animation shorts that we created for NICK India too have done extremely well – earning high viewership for NICK as well as numerous awards internationally. And most important – they are helping us fund the production of Return of the Jungle.
The industry for Indie Indian animation has become quite aware of the power of this medium, animation. Just like Kumaresh, animation filmmaker Abhishek Verma is also looking forward to the release of Bombay Rose as a changing landmark for independent animation. “I believe we will be seeing a strong story in animation feature for the first time. The game is on content and story whereas animation comes later. Still we have to look for mature stories and have a long way to cross that barrier,” added Verma.
Verma mentioned two independent filmmakers, who did quite a fabulous job at animation with their works Maa Tuki, Watercolor hand drawn Film on the plight of cancer, establishing a relationship between mother and daughter by Suchana and Mr. Persley web series by Suyog Khadikar. He thinks, “We can change a lot if we apply the mature stories in animation for web.”
With a tremendous increase in the number of television channels and OTT platforms, the need for more artists in motion graphics and CG sector has increased considerably. Vaibhav More Films recent campaign for ZEE HD channels is another step in the field of animation, as we can see a huge content created using live-action and animation, which is expected to be more polished and good quality for the HD screens.
Talking about the growth of independent Indian animators, Vaibhav Studios completed successful animated 15 years in 2018, becoming an inspiration for others. The animation industry is not only growing but is being accepted from across the globe and all age groups. Giving a shout out to the Indian Indie animators, we look forward to another animated glamorous year for the industry.
Hope 2019 sees many independent animated films hitting the screens, grabbing as many eyeballs and being loved dearly like always!
