It was the best of times, it was the worst of times for the Indian animation industry: Jai Natarajan

Indian animation continues to lurch like Gollum, between darkness and light, in its journey towards local dominance and global relevance.

To be fair, creative industries everywhere are being disrupted and devalued before again emerging triumphant in some new form, because their grip on people’s hearts and minds is the one thing that cannot be broken.

Let’s examine the pillars of the Indian animation industry, namely education, talent, quality, productivity and demand.

After years of engagement with educators through forums like TASI, I have observed a distinct improvement in their level of creative aspiration. I think the ideological debate about software is over, but implementing a truly creative curriculum is still extremely difficult. We are happy to observe pockets of excellence in training and evolution of good student short films and. The hardest perennial problem is to reconcile scale with quality. The “Train The Trainer” institute by ABAI, entirely funded by Government of Karnataka, is a unique effort that attempts to address the very roots of the problem. A number of senior artists are also dedicating themselves to education, which augurs well for the industry. Results are yet to be seen if you go by numbers, but green shoots are visible. We hope good filmmakers can revive the time-honored tradition of apprentices, to bridge the gap.

In “Ratatouille” it is said, “Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist can come from anywhere”. That has been a very humbling experience for me again and again in our industry. We see more “A” students opting for the creative sector and putting in the effort to achieve a high skill level because they see the future of the work place. However they are heavily in demand across multiple competing sectors like gaming, product design, UI/UX, web, and the onus is on the animation industry to provide lucrative and engaging outlets for these students. The whole world is concerned about how to build the workplace of the future for millennials, and we should also be thinking about this.

Quality-wise, Indian animation splits into two extremes with very little in the middle. At the top you have the international service projects [enforced through strong pre-production and quality control] and the absolutely delightful and authentic short form animation that comes out of independent studios. The latter also encapsulates great design, music and storytelling. You also have Indian TV animation that is notable for engaging characters and genuine voice, even if the imagery isn’t perfect. But then animation is about overall impact, not pixel polishing. At the other end you have stuff called animation in name only. It is cringe-worthy to see studios mushrooming up, putting out horrible clunky imagery. This hurts the industry and cheapens our brand.  Character animation is a difficult art and needs due respect. We should be honest with ourselves and with each other. There is no “India discount” on quality in the global game.

Productivity is an important aspect of animation, as it is tied with iterative quality and overall budgets. All things being equal, Indian artists can create world-class animation. However they fall behind on productivity, which has to do with clarity of planning and approach, quality of understanding and communication, and project planning and management. Unless we obsessively benchmark and measure this candidly, we will be handicapped in the global race. At Xentrix we do our best to constantly chase this runaway train.

Finally, we come to the question of market demand. People want animation in every size, shape and form. The TV channels are at the beginning of a golden run in India, backed by spread of digital set-top box and a great consumer market. We are seeing brands like Chhota Bheem and Motu Patlu grabbing the public eye and international hits like Cars and Pokemon also now look at India as a genuinely large merchandise market. The box office is dramatically higher for international animation films but not yet for Indian content, perhaps because audiences here look for a more selective and less frequent experience. Mobile games are using animation and some of the most popular YouTube channels are those of animated nursery rhymes. However this is only a drop in the ocean. I believe the market can support a lot more content of varied genres as the audience matures. Who would have thought Kabaddi and Soccer could have enormously popular private leagues, even two years back? So from a demand perspective, things are looking up. The key question is how and when this will reach a financial sweet spot versus the cost of production.

In India, nothing happens for a long time and then everything happens all of a sudden. The smart strategy is to give yourself; enough innings at the crease and to be still standing, when the dust clears. We need to be inclusive, where big and small, student and professional, service and IP, foreign and domestic, experimental and commercial, all support and push each other to the next level as part of one big brand.

(These are purely personal views of Xentrix Studios CEO & co-founder – Jai Natarajan and AnimationXpress.com does not subscribe to these views)