Sunday, December 2, 2012

Looking for character(s)

The Indian animation industry desperately needs some brand recall

Mickey Mouse turned 80 last week amidst much fanfare and celebrations all over the world, including India. In fact, our forever ‘desperate for any news’ news channels used this opportunity to blanket their screens with images of Mickey Mouse’s adventures over the eight decades. However, even after discounting the current over-hyped nature of India’s news media, the fact is that the eponymous mouse has deep resonance for millions of Indians. And although the current generation has a multitude of choices, Mickey Mouse is still capable of eliciting a smile from any child’s (and many adults’) face. But the mouse’s longevity and relevance begs a question, why hasn’t Indian animation industry, with India’s rich cultural and mythological history to mime, been able to come up with somebody remotely approaching the stature of Mickey?

The Indian animation and gaming industry currently achieves a modest turnover of $400 million, but is expected to reach the $1 billion mark by 2010 (although this estimate is likely to be revised downwards as the global economic downturn intensifies). The strength of the industry, as with almost all industries in India, is the cost of labour (it’s been estimated that the cost of making an animation movie in India is 15 times cheaper than the west). With relatively cheap, English speaking, adequately trained professionals being the backbone of Indian animation industry, global animation studios are getting interested. Yash Raj Films’ three picture deal with The Walt Disney Studios, of which the first was Roadside Romeo, and UTV’s $20 million co-production with Overbrook Entertainment are steps in the right direction. Such deals will give access to the studios to state-of-the-art equipment, talent and quality of the US animation industry, which it badly needs.
 

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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