Anand Ramachandran

40 years ago we had a wonderful thing called Amar Chitra Katha and that kept an entire generation in touch with their history and mythology. But like any good drink it left a hangover. Has the success of Amar Chitra Katha led us to believe we need mythology/folklore for successful animation and gaming content?

This was the question that Anand Ramachandran, Creative Director, A Bellyful of Dreams Entertainment posed to the audience in the session, 'Beating the Mythology Hangover'.

He began the session by asking, "How many of you are artists? How many of you are programmers? How many of you are business people? You might as well leave the room since I would be talking purely from a creative point of view and you might think I am mad."

Anand said that most of what we see lacks imagination and style especially in a contemporary sense. It is time to get over the ACK hangover. Outside the ACK space, we have bollywood and cricket, here too from the creative perceptive we often lack in imagination. Even a good idea looses steam along the line. Marvel also doesn't write the same story which it did 50 years ago, isn't it time for us to move on too.

So what is the solution to this? Do we need mytho based content or do we need that 'X' factor content in animation and gaming content.

Why look beyond the pool of content which we have? Yes we undoubtedly need good mytho/cricket/bollywood content. But do all of us need to do that? For local consumption these themes come with certain constraints. India will be a market for good quality games, maybe not now but a few years down the line. We need to do good stuff at a reasonably good cost and that will work and everyone will be successful.

Disruptive Content
Disruptive content is the one which makes noise, is unique and stands out of the non disruptive content. Anand said, "We need disruptive content, which is the only kind of stuff that will generate the momentum that will open the market for other stuff to exploit it, it needs to be noisy so it makes it in the market. Great games with disruptive creatives can travel to global markets. We need characters that can be quirky. Some of us need to make IP that can eventually be turned in to money spinning licensable franchises like Mario, Halo etc. Let start thinking long term."

He shared some problems that mytho based content has. Mythology is essentially a public domain like for example Krishna doesn't belong to me or you and hence not franchise-able and monitizable as an IP over the long term. Again Mythology will always be a potentially sensitive subject.

About Bollywood movies becoming games he shared that a flop movie will damage the fortune of a good game. There is a lot of baggage in terms of expectations. Typically Bollywood movies and hence the games have a low shelf life.

Being Disruptive
An original idea turning into an IP stands the best chance of being disruptive. By doing unexpected and unusual things, one can open the door to create lasting value. Good original creative content can help create disruption by appealing to the audiences who can and will provide genuine momentum. Giving an example of disruptive content he said, "Internationally I think 'SOUTH PARK' and 'BORAT' have disruptive content. When I came to know about Borat through a friend I had to make at least 15 calls to tell all my friends about it. This is what we need. Disruptive content spreads with word of mouth. In India, we have Savitha Bhabhi and MTV Bakra."
Quoting examples like AR Rahman who believed that westernized and synethetic music will dig in, Lalit Modit who believed that India will support city based teams and introduced IPL, Will Wright who knew people would play games about mowing the lawn, washing the dishes and going to the toilet. Anand said that these are the people who disrupted the status quo, changed consumption habits and busted open markets.

There is no formula to make successful content, it is about trusting content that we BELIEVE will work and sparing no efforts in creating a world class end product. Getting LUCK is what everyone wants, but it is useless without other elements.

So how does one define disruptive content? There are two important factors, one having a terrific idea and the other getting top notch production. The content needs to be unique and original and unlike anything that the market has seen before. Be Buzz worthy- easily and enthusiastically recommend to peers and last but not the least have top class production in every aspect.

Applying this funda, there are 2 routes that he spoke about. One of the routes is by differentiating your content through 'game play' which is rather difficult in current times. The other route is by differentiating through creative content which is easier and the preferred route that is considered by most.

Giving examples of how one finds such ideas to create content he said," We have a 10000 years of storytelling tradition lets live up to that and create stuff ourselves as well. Putting things in unusual contexts or situations or unusual spin offs of the known stereotype or probably looking at topics from an unusual perspective and unusual places."

One of the ways of getting a great idea is to get a great creative team. "Get a professional writer/storyteller. Storytelling is not a job for anyone. The writers need to understand they are working in a contemporary and interactive media. The team needs a professional UI and graphic designer. Animators and artists don't always make good designers. There is a need of having top class artists who aren't merely imitators."

The entire team needs exposure in everything. Working in a game studio and developing a game, the artists need to essentially play a lot of games, watch movies, cartoons, read and travel. Anand gave an example of this studio where everyone is made to play games and be exposed to the interactive media through various means. He said that an industry like ours cannot be driven without passion. We need people who are crazy about what they do especially smaller studios like mine. We celebrate originality, imagination, creative integrity and conviction. Work should be its own motivation cutting any useless frills. Ensuring a high output and avoiding slack people in the team. We actively create spaces and situations for creative people to interact and engage.

Last but not the least he concluded by saying that we base the cost of our content on the the production cost but it should actually be on the basis of the current market scenario.