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"Bright"
that's the word most often associated with the future of Indian
animation. True the future looks promising, but how the promise
will take shape of reality, is something that one has to wait
and watch.
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Graphiti
Chief Munjal Shroff
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The
session 'Future of Indian content' at NASSCOM Animation India
06 was a series of presentations by the brave heads of the
animation studios that had blazed the trail of original Indian
animated content in the past couple of years.
The session was moderated by Dhruva Interactive CEO Rajesh
Rao and the presentions were made by Graphiti's Munjal Shroff,
Greengold's Rajiv Chilakalapudi and Dawsen Infotech's VC Bhalotia.
A common issue that emerged out of the presentations was the
need to create a funding model for creating local animated
content. Said Graphiti's Munjal Shroff," For the local
content market to grow, producers and broadcasters have to
work at a funding model where at least the basic production
costs have to be covered by the broadcaster"
"True that broadcasters will not recover their investments
in the first airing itself but over time they will surely
get extremely attractive returns. As producers, we in turn
realise that we have to focus more on low budget yet high
impact shows with good attention to design" he added.
Greengold's
Rajiv Chilakalpudi in his presentation titled 'Feedback on
past broadcast and lessons for the future' said that,"We
are terribly short of Indian animation content. On an average
every kids broadcaster airs at least two hours of fresh content
every day, there are three major kids broadcasters who air
animated content, that makes it 2000 plus hours of fesh new
animated content in a year. That's the potential. Now compare
this to the fact that in the past 5 years we have had a total
of about only 20 hours of original Indian animated content
being aired"
"Another point I'd like to highlight" added Rajiv,
"is that original Indian content has been garnering very
high ratings and comparing well with the best animation shows
despite being produced under constraints"
"As
I see it there will be a lot of shows on Indian heros and mythology
in Animation and then we will witness a gradual transition towards
original Indian characters" he added.
Dawsen Infotech's Vanchandra Bhalotia made a case for regional
animated content. Quoting current statistics Bhalotia pointed
out that, "There are sixty regional channels in India currently
and the number is set to double in the next few years. With
Thakurmar Jhulie we have proven that one can produce
low budget animated show and be profitable right here in India.
The future definitely looks bright"
Session
Moderator Rajesh Rao surmised thus:"Most TV Channels in
India are currently based on advertising model, but as the pay
TV environment grows and people pay to watch content we can
be sure that local Indian animated content will gain more prominence.
Meanwhile producers and broadcasters need to collaboarte and
work out a model that works for everyone involved" |
