Empowering Indian Animation
- Kireet Khurana
Animation In India- Where are we?
Indian animation Industry is worth about $20 million today and growing rapidly. Animation today is one of the most “happening” niche to be in. Virtually all big Indian media houses have either set up their post-production, special-effects animation studios or are contemplating to do so. We’re a nation with a known base in technology. Fact is also that we have the equipment in special effects paralleling the best available worldwide.

India produces the maximum number of feature films worldwide and has come up with over a 100 myriad local

 
   
channels in the last decade. There is a huge potential and latent demand for indigenous content animation today, especially with the tremendous success of the foreign cartoon channels. So how come we still don’t see any significant Indian animation products?

Indi Animation- Who are we?
In 1935, while Disney Studios was busy completing its first animation feature- Snow White and the seven dwarves, our pioneer animator Dadasaheb Phalke was making the first Indian animated short film made with matchsticks in black and white. The fact that India did not have the training institutes or other avenues to learn animation impeded growth of this medium severely for decades.
 
Till the early 90s, the only source of making animation films in India was the government owned Films Division, producing barely 10-15 mins. of animation annually. (Films Division is the organisation from where our modern pioneer animators – Bhimsain and Ram Mohan graduated). The only other way to be in the animation business was to make animated ad films. In the past 10 years, India has made giant leaps in animation with major studios springing up bagging overseas contracts.

Producing Indian Animation - Do we have what it take?
Economics, for one. A country of more than a billion people, a huge market and latent demand. We have large animation studios with creative and technical expertise and infrastructure all over the country. But the economic viability factor is loaded heavily against it. Whereas a 22 minute live-action episode for TV typically costs about Rs.300,000-400,000, an animated episode would cost about Rs.2 million!

Sponsorships and merchandising items sold along with the animation series / Films hold the key. Books, toys, apparels… anything that generates additional revenues to offset and recover costs and get profits.

Children’s “Pester-Power” is another new mantra gaining ground. Recent studies reveal that children not only have almost complete say in purchase of impulse and specific FMCG products, they also have considerable clout in durables and appliances section. Just in case if you wondered why a Automobile ad on Disney hour…!
How do you re-invent?
Similar to the lines of what happened with the software industry. Brand Building: Today India is the preferred destination for backend software business around the world and
 
growing at a phenomenal rate. If we can somehow re-invent India as a brand for animation products as well and change global perception, overseas work will flow into India. For this, we need a catalyst, a driver, similar to what the Y2K bug did for the software industry.
Even an Indian animation product successful abroad could in the interim build India as a brand. Therefore, quite a few of the big studios are working on indigenous animation products, a healthy change and growth.

Why is there a need?
Why do we need Indian animation at all? After all our children are being fed with a staple diet of Mickey Mouse, Power Puff Girls. Who is going to be the heroes of our next generation? When the rest of the world, including Europe, is wary of the American cultural invasion, why shouldn’t we also diligently protect our cultural interests?

Embedded deep in our cultural heritage are gems like Jataka, Panchatantra, Hitopodesa, Mahabharata and Ramayana. These stories lend themselves naturally

 
and beautifully to animation. Besides history and mythology, each region has its own local folk tales history. If they are executed in the right manner, they shall crack open the international animation market for Indian products, on the lines of what the Anime style of animation did for the Japanese.
Where are we headed?
There are two divergent scenarios….
1. Things continue the way they are going. Cartoon Network, Disney hour, Nickelodeon take over. The new generation of kids grows up with foreign animated characters as role models, which is already happening. Our entire “cultural heritage” gets overwhelmed and lies buried forgotten forever (a la Philippines).
2. Indian animation products currently under production like Panchatantra, Tenali Rama, Chhota Birbal and others do make significant viewership dent (like the localization of Star Plus channel being a perfect example for mantra of success) and also manage to pull off merchandising and licensing deals thereby recovering costs and making good profits. In this scenario, I envisage then there will be space for at least 50 large studios to provide at least 4 hours of programming content per day.
Things are looking exciting at this point of time, especially with the success of the animated “Ramayana” on Cartoon network. More Indian animation programs are expected to hit TV screen soon. A lot will depend on the success of these products for the nascent indigenous animation.

India as an Animation superpower.
Is it actually possible? What about training and educating the students, guiding them to the right avenues and teaching them what the masters already know thereby increase the knowledge database?

TASI (The Animation Society of India) has been constituted last year under the stewardship of Ram Mohan. TASI holds regular screenings and workshops to create awareness and share tips, techniques besides being an interface for studio heads, animators, Students and animation enthusiasts alike and has close to 400 members.
 
TASI’s website – www.tasionline.org is being developed currently to be the hub for animators in India, a place where they can source information regarding studios, events, employment and bulletin boards where all queries related to animation get answered through professional animators.

Besides TASI, recently formed APAI (Animation Producers association of India), has been instrumental in India signing co-production treaties with several important countries including Canada.

Only if we move as one entity and help each other source talent, contacts and

information will we be able to make the Indian animation industry a force to reckon with in the coming years. Then the industry will get more animated…

High-Honours graduate from Sheridan College, Canada, in animation film-making Kireet Khurana is the co-founder of TASI. He has won numerous National and International awards for his short films)