"At UTV our entire thrust is to regain a leadership position in animation"

When it comes to movers and shakers, there are few who have made inroads into different areas within Indian entertainment as quick and as early as UTV Founder and CEO Ronnie Screwvala.

One of the first companies to launch an indegenious Indian kids channel, one of the first Indian companies to get into making movies in a 'Hollywood Studio' kind of model, UTV was also one of the first studios in India to get seriously into the animation space, nearly a decade ago.

UTVToons was one of the biggest names in the first wave of Indian animation and it still is a big name, even as the second wave of Indian animation looks set to deliver on potential. The studio which for the past 24 months had maintained a low profile, is back in the news with a flurry of international projects that it announced recently.

Animation 'xpress Editor Anand Gurnani found out that there's a lot more to come from the UTVToons stable including completely animated feature films when he met up with UTV Founder and CEO Ronnie Screwvala at Parijat House (the UTV headquarters) on a 'Busy Saturday Afternoon'.

Excerpts

Recently there seems to be a renewed positive charge about UTV Toons. Comments?
We are pioneers of the Indian animation industry and in 1995/96 we were the first to set up a large-scale animation studio in India for the purpose of providing animation production services to international clients. More than 1500 professionals working in the industry today have come out of UTV Toons. Overall we have done about 5000 minutes of animation spanning over 360 episodes.

Post 9/11 work slowed down, also 2d has slowed down a lot. We have kept a low profile for the last two years and some people even thought that we had exited this business. But that is not the case, we have been working in the background and now at UTV our entire thrust is to regain a leadership position in animation because we believe that we understand this business better than anyone else. Our customer base for our TV and Movies business is around the world with 30% of UTV revenues coming from outside India. We are also the only media and Entertainment Company in India, which has all three - , a kid's channel, an animation studio and one of the largest movie production houses in the country.

Another thing I'd like to mention is that the animation business is sometimes cyclical. UTV being a 360* media and entertainment company and animation currently being only 2% of our revenue, we are in a better position to take the cyclical pattern of the animation business in our stride. Looking forward animation is definitely a thrust and the highest priority area for UTV.

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Any changes in the business model?
The animation business model will involve all three - Outsourcing, Co Production and Producing Original Content. And when we say co pro we mean making equal investments and having a share in the worldwide profits, just the way we do in our movie business. Most Indian animation studios have been involved in co productions that have been rather skewed, studios have just waived their fees in return for rights for some territories where markets have not matured and the value is just perceived rather than realized.

So what does the current slate look like?
Currently we are working on 15 Direct to home Movies for the North American market. These DVDs are all outsourced assignments and the deadline for completion is September 2007. The current output is 150 minutes of animation a month and the plan is to double that soon. We are also doing a 104 episode TV Series for a Holland based company
as well as Freej a Series of seventeen short episodes of 15 minutes each for Dubai Media City telecast on Dubai City.

Your plans for original content?
We will be announcing two Animated Movies within the next three months. These will be for the Asian Diaspora worldwide, produced and distributed through UTV and animation production will be done at UTV Toons. We are discussing close to 18 scripts with well-known directors, writers and producers from across the globe. The movies will be modern day stories meant for family viewing. For UTV, a good story is the main criteria.

With this kind of a slate you sure must be ramping up? Both in terms of infrastructure and manpower?
We have invested around Rs 25 Crores last month in equipment, infrastructure and other areas. We will be making additional significant investments once we green light the 3D Animated feature projects. In terms of the team size we have scaled up to 225 seats and will soon reach 500 capacity. The artists are on multiple year contracts and are being paid on basis of output in terms of secondage.

Won't paying on secondage affect quality?
For that we have checks in place. Any work that doesn't pass the QC has to be done again and an artist might have to stay 16 hours instead of eight if he churns out work that's below quality standards set by us.

During the first wave, UTV Toons was strong on 2D. Now most of your projects are in 3D…
That's a global trend. In the year 2000, 80% of the animation produced was in 2D while 20% of it was 3D. In 2005 it came to 50%3D and 50% 2D. 3D is gaining exponentially. India never managed to build a core competence in 2D. We were half the price of the competition but 1/5th in output speed. In 3D, Indian studios are evolving faster and are developing core competence.

Your perspectives on the Indian animation industry?
There is so too much puff in the industry. Indian animation needs to focus on building the business than the Market Cap. Every studio in the country thinks that they are a potential DreamWorks or a potential ILM, one needs to understand that scalability is not so simple in animation.

I would urge NASSCOM to help this situation rather than just make tall claims. What impression will international guys have of us if three years back we announce that the Indian Animation Industry is worth a figure of 1.5 Billion US Dollars, get it down to 500 million in the next and finally this year peg it at 285 Million US Dollars. Even 285 Million sounds difficult to figure out, what with the largest listed animation studio in the country doing business worth Four Million Dollars. I'd like someone to give me a break-up of the 285 Million and show how it all adds up.

NASSCOM & the I&B ministry need to help in institutionalizing this industry by getting in proper training and standardization. They should help project the animation industry as one with tremendous potential, but that which still needs to be realized. They should help in projecting animation as a credible industry to work in, so that animators can proudly tell their peers that they are in animation.

Please tell us about UTV's Kids channel Hungama? Are you also looking to commission Indian created animation content?
Hungama is clearly the No.2 Kids Channel - in just 17 months and way ahead of most of the others in a seven channel environment - except only Cartoon Network that has been around for more than 10 years. Our USP is the right mix of Animation and Live Action.
We have bought around 600 hours (which comes to about 2000 episodes) of animation for Hungama from various producers and broadcasters across the world. Couple of years ago we were paying 200 US Dollars per episode, now we are paying 600 US. Whatever we buy for Hungama, we reserve all the rights for broadcast, for regional, for home video etc. Again while we are their customers as Hungama, we are also looking at them as our customers for UTV Toons, the possibility for sealing long term deals is therefore higher.

What's the UTV Toons approach to animation?
For UTV the business is more about content and creativity, less about logistics. Animation will grow exponentially only when we invest in IPR. I also feel that the Direct To Home market is set to grow exponentially in India. Over a period of time, the films that we make, will make more money on Home Video than any other medium.