With a journey of two years, passing milestones and many more to come, 88 Pictures focuses on creating stories that fascinate everyone and have ambitiously taken their next step by launching the IP division at 88 Pictures.
“Our priority is to apply the deep experience we have of animation to create stories that are perfect for the medium, and above all, have heart! Since the medium is constantly evolving, we want to stay at the forefront, essentially exploring trend-setting ideas in the same way that our first project Trollhunters did,” said 88 Pictures’ chief creative officer Philippe Gluckman.
The company takes pride in creating its IPs and are clear on building more. The team is planning to collaborate with broadcasters who can relate with the company’s way of telling stories and creating good frames.
With Ashish Thapar on-board as president of IP division, the team will have a driving force behind their efforts. Thapar is an industry veteran with two decades of a profound experience and successful projects in his crown.
88 Pictures CEO and founder Milind Shinde said, “Ashish will be working closely with Philippe, Siddhie and me to take our vision of creating some beautiful stories for the local as well as international market. With his excellent and proven leadership, he will be developing this division at 88 Pictures from the ground up to make it one of the best content creation studios in the country.”
Thapar has worked with studios like Disney, Vanguard Films, Sony Films, The Jim Henson Company, RGH Entertainment and production houses like Dharma Productions and Yashraj. He earlier executed the role of COO at Maya Digital Studio which he shaped to become one of the biggest IP house in India and has also served Prana Studios prior to that.
“Ashish has the perfect blend of experience that consists of working on high end animation projects and knows the pulse of the local market very. We were always very clear about what we want to build and create at 88 Pictures and there is no one better than Ashish to take this to the pinnacle,” commented studio head and co-founder Siddhie.
When asked about his expectations from the company and from himself, Thapar expressed that he has set higher expectations from himself than the company. And feels that they are at the right spot, matching their philosophy and what they want to build.
“Domestic IP industry is in the metamorphosis phase. The audience do not necessarily know what they want until they have seen it. My goal here is to create properties that will disrupt the market and set new trends for the times to come,” said Thapar.
Thapar feels he can learn new things and put his gathered learnings over the years. He also plans to take forward the already built strong credentials and be part of setting up new trends in the IP sector in India.
“The key is going to be in identifying and developing such properties that can resonate our philosophy of good storytelling and create beautiful frames that will linger on your mind for a long time,” feels Thapar. He thinks animation as the medium that doesn’t have limitations of shelf life and a good property continues to resonate and stay alive for generations.
“I’ll be starting from scratch and there is that adrenaline rush in building this baby brick by brick. My single most responsibility is to create that next big thing from India. We are in no hurry and want to take slow, steady and strong steps,” concluded Thapar.
The newly formed IP division looks promising enough and is sure going to be a treat for the AVGC industry enthusiasts to seek knowledge from and for the fans to gorge on some amazing work!