India’s animation industry had plenty on its plate AI, anime, mythology, licensing, original IP, cloud infrastructure and the eternal question of how to take Indian stories to the world as the first day of AnimationXpress’ Animation & More Summit 2026 brought the industry together in Mumbai.
Held under the theme “India to the World: Creating Global IPs for the Next Generation”, the summit opened with a sharp focus on the opportunities and fault lines shaping India’s creative economy. From studios experimenting with generative AI to creators turning television properties into entertainment universes, day one put the spotlight firmly on what comes next for Indian animation and IP.
The day opened with the welcome address by AnimationXpress, founder and editor-in-chief Anil NM Wanvari, before the conversation moved straight into one of the industry’s hottest talking points: AI.
The session ‘Studios using AI in their workflow’ examined how artificial intelligence was moving from buzzword to production-floor reality. Kraft Lounge, representative Shivansh Mishra, and Paperboat Design Studios, co-founder and director Aashish Mall, discussed AI’s impact on workflows including rigging, in-betweening, rotoscoping and background generation, while also raising questions around fair pay, attribution and what creative work could mean for the next generation of animators.
The technology conversation then shifted from algorithms to actual pixels with ‘Bringing Wolf King to Life: The Making of Season 2’. Assemblage Entertainment, CG supervisor Ajay Trivedi, and Assemblage Entertainment, animation supervisor Rajesh Patil, took audiences behind the scenes of the series, unpacking the work across animation, FX, lighting and compositing, and the collaboration and problem-solving required to deliver cinematic animation at scale.
Original IP then took centre stage with the official trailer premiere of ‘Noko: Guardians of The Earth’. Nokoverse, founder Sonam Shekhawat, and Nokoverse, co-founder and CEO Sagar Thakker, introduced the 3D animated adventure, created around five friends, friendship, curiosity and discovery. The IP marked Caizon’s ambition to build India-born character worlds capable of travelling across cultures, languages and formats.
The India-Japan connection came into sharper focus during the fireside chat ‘TV Asahi’s Next Chapter in Anime’. TV Asahi Corporation, director, international business department Makiko Inaba, joined 88 Pictures, co-founder and chief operating officer Aby John to discuss the evolution of anime IP, from Doraemon’s theatrical journey in India to short-form animation, merchandise and India-Japan co-production.
The children’s IP opportunity followed, with Emomee Entertainment, founder Pooja Jauhari, outlining the thinking behind Emomee and its ambition to build a global character-led entertainment universe. The session explored how curiosity, confidence, adaptability, emotional intelligence and critical thinking could be woven into stories without taking the fun out of them.
The morning also saw the launch of ‘The Garuda & Sacred Legacy’, presented by Neo Entertainment Studios, before the summit tackled one of India’s biggest creative opportunities in ‘The mythology opportunity: why Indian storytelling is the world’s biggest untapped animation IP reserve’.
The panel brought together HiTech Animation, CEO Ashish Thapar; Arena Animation & Vedatma College, educationist and mediapreneur B.S. Srinivas; Green Gold Animation, founder and managing director Rajiv Chilaka; and Phantom Animation, senior vice president-production and business Vetrivell V, with Nokoverse, founder Sonam Shekhawat, moderating. The discussion examined the global potential of Indian mythology and cultural storytelling, why properties such as Chhota Bheem have travelled, and what has kept many Indian stories from breaking through internationally.
Anime then moved from storytelling to shelf space with ‘Iconic Anime, Powerful Partnerships! An IP Licensing Showcase’. Muse Communication, IP licensing and merchandising specialist Avantika De, explored the anime licensing ecosystem, brand collaborations and emerging opportunities for businesses looking to tap into anime fandom. The session was followed by a screening of Black Torch by Muse.
The business of content took over the afternoon. In ‘Creating Content for Broadcast & Digital in the current era’, Kayhan Entertainment, co-founder and CEO Dalbir Singh; Neela Mediatech, CEO Harjeet Chhabra; ETV Bal Bharat, deputy general manager-content acquisitions & channel operations Shashi Prakash Singh; and Videogyan, founder and CEO Vishal T M, discussed the changing economics of content as traditional television advertising plateaued and digital-first, streaming and AVOD models gained ground. Paperboat Design Studios, co-founder and director Aashish Mall, moderated the discussion, which covered programming rhythms, audience retention, episode lengths, platform economics and hybrid monetisation.
If eyeballs were one currency, fandom was another. The ‘Brand Licensing- Capitalising on Character Fandom and Consumer Products’ panel examined how animation characters could leap from screens into merchandise, apparel, FMCG and retail. Kikkoman India, director and Indian representative Harry Hakuei Kosato; Hasbro, head-licensed consumer products, India, Mena & Pacific Hemang Vasani; Wembley Toys, director Aditya Neotia; vice president and head- marketing Varun Oberoi and Bacca Bucci, senior product designer Jerin Mathew discussed licensing deals, minimum guarantees, royalties, retail dynamics and the importance of considering merchandising from the earliest stages of character creation. AnimationXpress, head of licensing and merchandising Chirag Makwana, moderated.
Anime’s global trajectory came into focus once again with Kadokawa, head of anime Junichiro Tamura, delivering a session on ‘The Global Rise of Anime’.
The summit then turned to a homegrown entertainment phenomenon. In ‘Building an Indian Entertainment Universe for the World: The Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah Journey’, Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah, creator and producer Asit Kumarr Modi, spoke about the evolution of the television property into a multi-format entertainment universe. The conversation covered its 2D and 3D animation journey, content for different age groups, multilingual ambitions and the future of animation-led storytelling, with AnimationXpress, founder and editor-in-chief Anil NM Wanvari, moderating.
The perennial service-to-IP conundrum then took the mic. ‘Service studio to IP creator: Why the transition is harder than it looks and how to do it anyway’ brought together philmCGI, co-founder and managing director Anand Bhanushali; Small Town Boys Studios, founder Alok Sharma; Toonz Media Group, director Anish Narayanan Kutty; Assemblage Entertainment, CEO Arjun Madhavan; and Studio56 Animation & VFX, founder and CEO Sriram Chandrasekaran. Moderated by AnimationXpress, founder and editor-in-chief Anil NM Wanvari, the session examined shrinking global budgets, cautious commissioning, the cost of developing original properties and what a viable transition from outsourcing to IP creation could look like.
Running alongside the main programme, an Oracle roundtable, ‘The State of Media Infrastructure: Capacity, Bottlenecks and Bursting’, explored the infrastructure pressures created by growing video, streaming and rendering workloads. The closed-door discussion looked at storage throughput, network egress and compute elasticity across the media pipeline, and how cloud infrastructure could help media organisations scale workloads on demand.
The original IP conversation continued with ‘Building Sustainable Original IPs: Warner Bros. Discovery’. Warner Bros. Discovery, head of factual and lifestyle cluster for India and South Asia Sai Abishek; Warner Bros. Discovery, associate director, programming and scheduling, kids cluster, South Asia Divya Chaturvedi; Green Gold Animation, founder and CEO Rajiv Chilaka; and writer, producer and director Niraj Vikram discussed the challenge of creating homegrown stories that could resonate locally while carrying global appeal. Assemblage Entertainment, CEO Arjun Madhavan, moderated.
The creative lens widened further with ‘Ink and Imagination’, an artwork showcase featuring independent artists. Animation film director Krishna Chandran; Entangled Studio, CEO and animation director Shubhranshu Singh; Scribbling Studios, founder Sumandeep Singh; and Trio & Cosmics, lead artist Randeep Singh took audiences through their creative processes, inspirations, artistic journeys and the stories behind their work.
The day closed on a celebratory note with the Ann Awards, recognising creative excellence across the industry through the Arnab Chaudhuri Awards, DigiCon6 Asia Awards, Ram Mohan Awards and Ramoji Excellence Awards, before the industry gathered for networking and dinner.
From AI pipelines to anime shelves, mythology to merchandise and service work to original IP, day one made one thing clear: India’s animation story is no longer content to stay local. The ambition is bigger, the competition is global and the next generation of Indian IP is already warming up backstage.
