Witches and thrones: Indian animators cash in on special effects boom

Prime Focus

12/10/2015 22:00

* India-based animators' revenue grew 13 pct year-on-year 
    * More Hollywood demand spurring growth 
    * Studios looking at boosting local demand 
 
    By Nivedita Bhattacharjee 
    MUMBAI, Oct 13 (Reuters) - They call themselves Hollywood's 
best-kept secret: India's animators, long-time partners for the 
likes of Walt Disney Co  DIS.N , are reaping the rewards of 
surging demand for visual effects and gaining the confidence to 
venture out on their own. 
    India's animation industry generated revenue worth 44.9 
billion rupees ($675.7 million) in 2014, a 13 percent increase 
from the previous year, according to data from a FICCI-KPMG 
report on India's media and entertainment industry. 
    The industry is expected to double in size to 95.5 billion 
rupees within five years, as Hollywood studios tap a large pool 
of low-cost, English-speaking animators who are familiar with 
Western culture. 
    So far, animators based in India have created crowd scenes 
and props for the Emmy award-winning TV series "Game of Thrones" 
as well as more prominent visual effects for films including 
Disney's 2014 Angelina Jolie movie "Maleficent" and Dreamworks 
Animation's  DWA.O  "How to Train Your Dragon", among other 
Hollywood hits.  
    "We are one of those best kept secrets. We do all this 
amazing work and no one knows about it," said Biren Ghose, who 
runs the Indian subsidiary of U.S. firm Technicolor, which 
includes the India-based animation units that worked on 
"Maleficent". 
    In a bid to gain more business and build a higher profile, a 
unit of Mumbai-listed visual effects firm Prime Focus Ltd 
 PRFO.NS  last year bought London-based Double Negative, the 
studio that this year won an Oscar for best visual effects for 
"Interstellar". 
    Others like Prana Studios have attracted investment from 
some of the country's richest men - Reliance Industries' tycoon 
Mukesh Ambani and Anand Mahindra of the diversified Mahindra 
Group.  
    "Of course cost is a big factor," said Arish Fyzee, Prana's 
chief executive and creative director, when asked about the 
Indian animation industry's appeal. Both Mahindra and Reliance 
declined to comment for this story. 
    "But ultimately, animation is about performance and 
understanding cultural idioms and idiosyncrasies. The 
combination is what our clients find helpful." 
    India's animation industry is almost as old as its movie 
industry, the world's biggest in terms of revenue. In 1956, a 
local movie studio invited a Disney animator to train them, and 
a year later, India's first animated production "The Banyan 
Deer" was made. 
    Over the years, studios have generated their own animated 
movies, ranging from 2008's box office flop "Roadside Romeo", a 
3-D cartoon movie jointly produced by Yash Raj films and Disney, 
to this year's hit war epic "Bahubali", India's costliest film 
on record. 
    Indian demand for local animation is dwarfed by business 
from Hollywood, but some studios like Prana say working on their 
own movies will elevate the industry's status, and their own 
profile. 
    "It's a departure from waiting for work to come from the 
United States," said Prana's Fyzee. The firm is creating its own 
animated movie "Wish", about wishing wells.      
($1 = 64.8817 Indian rupees) 
 
 (Editing by Miral Fahmy) 
 ((nivedita.bh@thomsonreuters.com; +91 22 6180 7123 ; Reuters 
Messaging: nivedita.bh.reuters.com@reuters.net, follow me on 
twitter @tweetsfromnivi)) 
 
Keywords: INDIA OUTSOURCING/ANIMATION