Yash Chopra on Animation

At the inaugural session at FRAMES 05, FICCI Entertainment committee chairman Yash Chopra in his address to the audience made a few positive mentions about the great potential of Indian animation.

Animation 'xpress followed up with the Emperor of Indian entertainment and here's what he had to say.

Here's an excerpt

"The Animation industry is going to be very very big in the future. Globally animation is already very huge. As far as my movies are concerned, I think the studio that has worked on the animation in Hum Tum has done a very good job. Maybe in the time to come we may do a full length animation feature film"

"This the 2nd year that we have had the BAF Awards, in the 1st year we had 2 participating countries, this year we have 14. The awards were big, you had LOTR producer Barrie Osborne handing out the trophies. At FRAMES this year we focused on animation, gaming and FX. Gradually this particular aspect of film making called animation is going to gain prominence in our country"

Nihalani keen on animation too

For those that keep their eyes open at all times and relentlessly track Indian animation, the presence of Govind Nihalani last year at International Animation Day celebrations and this year at all the animation sessions at FRAMES 05 cannot go unnoticed.

Animation 'xpress quired with the ace filmmaker as to his interests in animation and Nihalini affirmed that he was very keen on animation.

Nihalani on being asked whether he planning a complete animated feature replied that at present he was just following the industry closely and would probably include a 5 minute animated sequence in one of his forthcoming projects.

LOTR producer has plans on India?

After days of pursuing and persisting with his Indian associate Madhusudanan, Animation 'xpress finally got to speak with LOTR producer Barrie Osborne.

A couple of days before FRAMES, the duo had made some announcements hinting at opening up of an Indian facility. Speaking to Animation 'xpress Barrie did affirm the same but at present was not willing to divulge further details such as where the studio would be located in India, when it would be inaugurated and so on....

However Barrie pointed out that he was looking at raising finance from within India for the venture. He also said that he was planning two divisions, one dedicated to animation (which would be a captive studio for his productions) and the other for FX which would be open to doing external projects.

"I have done a career out of big challenging movies" said Barrie. "Many people thought that LOTR couldn't be done in Newzealand. It was a pretty daunting task and though I had worked in the New Zealand industry before the industry had evolved from 1986 to 1999. There is some great talent there" he added.

"On being asked as to what was needed to make a great FX movie, Barrie replied,"You need to have the best of skills, conviction and of course the finance. Secure Finance, great script, a pool of artists and problem solving people are a must to a great FX movie. "

"India has a great culture in the arts, Indians have also achieved a lot in IT, Art +IT should lead to very succesful animation environment. 2 things have got me to India, one is my fascination for the country and the other is the persuasion of my friends Shekhar Kapur (With whom Barrie is working on for Paani)and Madhu"

Concluding his brief chat with Animation 'xpress, Barrie remarked "It is rebels who are the most passionate. I started my career by being a runner, running errands for shoots and have worked my way up"