“The outsourcing country”- a name that has been given to India by the western world is slowly starting to fade away. From only working on outsourced projects, Indian animation companies have now stepped up to creating their own IPs; be it a Chhota Bheem or Motu Patlu or Pakdam Pakdai.
In a special clinic taken by Toonz Animation India CEO P Jayakumar on IP creation at the fourth ABAI Fest and KAVGC Summit, several valuable lessons were learnt on how IP creation can be a good value addition rather than working on outsourced work. “Most successful movies don’t get return from tickets sold but rather from licencing and merchandising,” said Jayakumar starting off the interaction.
Toonz started off as an outsourcing company but then realised that it doesn’t allow the company to grown or earn more. As an experiment, they went ahead and created a series around an existing character Tenali Raman and today the Thiruvananthapuram based company only does IP work, no outsourcing. “Tenali is an IP that still makes money for us. The shelf life of animation is very long,” he said. The key, he said, was to create characters in a ‘believable world’ which could either be new or an existing one.
Jayakumar’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is to be a clever marketer and create a brand out of the character that can be merchandised as well. As per him, 45 per cent of Toonz’s revenue comes from its library.
A half an hour animated show can cost about Rs 20-30 lakh for an Indian company but Rs 1 crore for a European or US one. But he showed some positivity as well for Indian animators. “It’s a myth that you have to spend a lot of money. You can do a partnership and get 30-40 per cent funding as well as share the IP.
Once an IP is created, Jayakumar emphasised that it is about sustaining a brand and so one needs to pump in money for marketing as well. This apart he also explained how a character can supplement an existing brand. For example, a character that gets energy by having a drink can be taken to a product like Horlicks and partnered with.
Finally, he touched upon digital stream of revenue as well. The seasoned executive said that several YouTube channels such as ChuChu TV, Gummy bear and Pocoyo are making substantial amount of money with very little investment.