Awaiting a revolution

FREEZE FRAME/ The animation industry hasn't taken off as yet. That could still change

I was recently in Hyderabad for a National Association of Software Service Companies (NASSCOM) conference on animation.

At a similar conclave a couple of years ago, there was a lot of bluster, with all kinds of ambitious growth numbers being bandied around.

This time there was an air of optimism all right, but there seemed to be some confusion as to whether, with the earlier projections having gone awry, the much anticipated animation revolution was actually a pie in the sky.

The answer is no, but one must express a caveat. For too long we have just talked about the huge potential of animation without taking any concrete steps to realise it. Even today the potential exists.

In fact, with the advent of newer platforms like cellular phones, direct to home (DTH) and broadband there are more opportunities. However animatics (films, TV, video, gaming and special effects) still remains at best a small-scale business in India.

The whole animatics industry in India should be worth about US$ 300 million (Rs 1,311 crore). The fact that today animation worldwide is a US $ 50 billion (Rs 2,18,600 crore) industry and India has about a 0.5 per cent share of this market tells us what can be achieved with the right effort.

India still lags behind the Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea and central Europe where the majority of job work is being done for large American studios. We have less than 10,000 trained animators when the current requirement is over 50,000.

Except for short-term courses offered by companies like Arena Multimedia, Maya Entertainment and ZICA (the National Institute of Design does offer a more substantive course in animation), there is little in the way of a mass training programme, so essential if we want to scale up the business.

Some would say this is a classic chicken and egg situation where the right investment is not taking place in the absence of a definitive path forward.

With increased bandwidth available, outsourced work from overseas is all the more likely. We need to harness local talent, train it and create world-class work places and post production studios. There is also the whole business of creating original intellectual property.

More and more feature length animation films are being made around the world. Over 100 TV channels around the world primarily show animated content. The success of companies like Pixar and Dreamworks in Hollywood is testimony to how animation is really a big bucks affair.

Besides the lack of infrastructure, it is also the lack of creativity which is keeping most animation outfits as mere sweatshops. Crest is one of the few that has managed to break away with its acquisition of Rich Animation in the US.

A handful of other companies like Toonz, Escotoons, Jadooworks, Color Chips and UTV have some scale in their operations. The recent launch of Disney, Animax, Nickelodeon, Pogo and Hungama offer an emerging opportunity in the domestic market.

The other big opportunity lies in gaming which is the fastest growing segment of entertainment worldwide. The recent explosion in the number of data-enabled mobile phones means the creation of a huge new market for game developers.

India has the world's largest IT manpower workforce that covers almost all the technologies that exist in the computer-programming world. Game programming requires knowledge of C++ and/or Java.

There are hundreds of thousands of programmers in India who can get actual coding jobs for the international game industry. While a lot is being said about India emerging as the back office of the world through Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Bollywood too is making waves in international markets. What offers an immense potential (animation) is just about finding a mention.

There are great employment opportunities too. Animation and game development and related activity that centres on identical skill sets is the creation of the actual 3D characters or the game's cast of actors.

With a little more training and exposure to game development concepts, the same army can be re-focused on creating 3D character models for computer games and higher end visual effects for movies.

Another vital component is the electronic packaging of the game and this includes everything from a showy start up animated title to awe-inspiring mid-game cut scenes that illustrate the story to the game player.

The Indian film industry is today equipped with state-of-the art sound production facilities that are manned by skilled professionals who are adept at churning out sound tracks for movies and television dramas. With our experience in the field, it should be an easy task for us to take on assignments to create sound tracks for computer games and animation films.

Understanding technology is a prerequisite for the animation business. Constant upgrading of skills and keeping in touch with audience tastes is equally important.

What is most important is to aggressively market Indian animation content and skills abroad. I am quite sure that in the years to come cross-fertilisation of ideas and processes between the entertainment industry and IT professionals will lead to a blossoming of the Indian animation industry.

If we get the right investment in people and infrastructure and provide a marketing push, there's no reason why we cannot have a billion dollar industry in India in the next three years.

Amit Khanna is chairman of Reliance Entertainment. The views expressed here are his own