The ABAI Fest and KAVGC Summit 2015 saw Technicolor country head and ABAI chairman Biren Ghose speak encouraging words about the nascent yet bubbling animation, VFX, gaming and comics (AVGC) industry of Karnataka.
Speaking at the opening of the summit, Biren stated that globalisation has brought about a level playing field and in the emerging world of new media, India is changing to become ‘Digital India’ and areas such as social media, mobility, analytics and the advent of the cloud system are areas where the AVGC industry of India is in a good place to leverage. “AVGC is the forerunner to the new phenomenon – the digital manufacturing phenomenon. Co-creative of digital solutions has many lessons and opportunities for the ‘Make in India’ project. Areas of previz, simulation, 3D printing – which will be a big thing in the coming years – is what our industry has been already occupied with since long,” he said.
While 15 years ago, there was a mindless rush of companies that were set up, the ones that survived are now doing less work but which are bigger and bolder, thereby creating a virtuous cycle of growth.
Biren praised science and technology since it has continued to enable every development in the content creation process by giving new life to conventional themes and old stories.
He admitted that Hollywood still remains the epicentre of studios with large commercial franchises but it’s worthwhile to note that only a small part of its production is produced in Hollywood itself. “The AVGC sector in India has leveraged that. Hollywood today is about creating content in different parts of the world while giving the feeling that it has been created right next door. Bengaluru has become that place,” he exulted. Godzilla, X-Men : Days of Future Past, Life of Pi and Penguins of Madagascar are just some from the long list of movies that have been outsourced to Bengaluru.
The focus of ABAI in partnership with the Government of Karnataka, one of the few such in the world, is to create skill sets and to make the IT city of India a massively connected hub with partners in education across tools, technology and processes like no other in the world. While other countries had strong government support backing the AVGC industry, Karnataka managed that just a few years ago.
“We are moving from being digital followers to digital transformers,” he informed. The new generation studios are Google, Amazon and Netflix and according to Biren they will sow the seeds of destruction that will be both an opportunity for the new companies and a wakeup call for the traditional ones.