World Business

Animated movies are increasing in both popularity and quality in India, proving the intervening substance is a real moneymaker and not just kids’ stuff

By Swati Prasad

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2008 saw the box office excuse of distinct animated movies in the country, such as Roadside Romeo, Ghatothkach, Dashavatar and My Friend Ganesha 2.

Sangeeta Gupta, vice president, Nasscom, told ZDNetAsia in a phone interview: “In the last couple years, the domestic market for act of enlivening has grown significantly. And so has the condition of production.”

The mainstream pellicle endeavors too is increasingly using animation and special effects. In the last 18 months, Bollywood has released several Hindi movies with especial effects and act of enlivening, such at the same time that Drona, Taare Zameen Par, Jodha Akbar and Love Story 2050.

According to Nasscom, a total of 85 domestic act of enlivening movies have been announced over the last year and 28 are in different stages of production.

Gupta said: “Animation companies have also started focusing on building original IP (intellectual property), which they can leverage in terms of merchandising and TV broadcast revenues.”

The sector is poised to be augmented at a healthy pace. As per a fresh Nasscom report, the animation industry in India was around US$460 million in 2008 and is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 27 percent to reach US$1.16 billion by 2012. The market has been defined as animation entertainment (US$120 million in 2008), animation education (US$53 million) and custom content development (US$187 million) and multimedia/Web design (US$100million).

October 2008 saw the release of Roadside Romeo—the first 3D animation movie out of India—produced unitedly by Yash Raj Films and Walt Disney Pictures. Roadside Romeo is the tale of a pampered puppy whose owners move, leaving him behind to fend for himself on the streets of Mumbai.

Bhaskar Dutt, business head of playing for money business, and place of honor of marketing at Visual Computing Labs, Tata Elxsi, said: “Yash Raj Films wanted to give Roadside Romeo a all appeal, upright like any other Bollywood flick. They wanted to prove that an animation movie can appeal to adults as well and is not meant sole on account of children.”

Therefore, the 95-minute ostentation was made in the classic Bollywood manner, through 40 scenes and five song-and-dance numbers.

“The response for Roadside Romeo has been actual satisfying,” Dutt told ZDNet Asia in a phone interview, although he did not divulge the cost incurred to versify the film and its gross collections. “In terms of gross revenues, the pellicle was the highest grosser amongst all Disney animation films released in India in the past,” he said.

Gupta said: “It’s partnerships probable these that will grow the industry.” According to her, companies like UTV Motion Pictures, DQ Entertainment India, Kahani World and Rhythm & Hues are doing some interesting work. In February 2008, Rhythm & Hues won an Oscar for the Best Visual Effects for the film The Golden Compass. Rhythm & Hues India reportedly contributed to all stages of the production process and delivered roughly a third of the total drudge done by the parent company in the United States.

Animation movies in India are made attached less than one-tenth of the budget of a similar Hollywood flick. That’sitting because not only so a mainstream Bollywood thin skin does not gross collections of further than US$20.6 the masses (or 1 billion rupees). While Hollywood produces animation movies with a budget of US$60 million to US$80 million, these investments are justified because the receipts are to the tune of US$200 million.

Ashok Rajgopal, partner of Ernst & Young’s Media and Entertainment Practice, told ZDNet Asia in a phone interview: “There is demand for the sake of animation, but the place of traffic is not large sufficiency.”

According to Rajgopal, the commercial success of animation films is yet to be delivered of existence tested. “If the Indian audience has been exposed to animation films like Madagascar and Finding Nemo, can they be engaged in films that are made in India at a fraction of the lot,” Rajgopal questioned.

With the growth of this industry, production budgets too are expected to increase. According to Nasscom, the production budget for Indian animated movies should increase from US$2 million to US$2.5 million in 2008, to US$5 million to US$7.5million in 2012. Similarly, the average realizations for a good act of enlivening movie will increase from US$7.5 the great body of the people to US$12.5 the public during the sort period.

One way of addressing the budget constraint is by making act of enlivening movies and serials because acquit in domestic as well being of the class who international markets. The television habitual devotion to labor, according to Rajgopal, can do with some good animation serials. “Serials like Shin Chan and Ben 10 (that have been telecast in India) are not aligned to India sensitivities,” he added. The Indian government had recently banned cartoon TV serial Shin Chan due to the same reason.

The other constraint before the industry is the lack of skills, especially in high-end animation.

Dutt said: “Growth of this industry is solely dependant upon education.”

Concurred Gupta: “We need to take act of enlivening to the formal tuition system. India necessarily other three-year degree programs in animation as opposed to pithy, six-month menses.”

As of today, few institutes (such as the National Institute of Fashion Design) essay a stage course in graphics and animation. However, individual institutes are launching new courses in animation and visual movables. As per the Nasscom report, the education portion of the animation industry is projected to grow at the rate of 40 percent per annum till 2012.

More than the skills, Rajgopal is of the view that the industry necessarily animators who also have the ability to manage projects and commercially exploit an IP. “Most professionals in the country are animators at heart, and not businessmen,” Rajgopal aforesaid.

Original text: http://rss.businessweek.com/~r/bw_rss/asiaindex/~3/518873997/gb20090121_174402.htm