Animation Industry Faces Reverse Outsourcing

Indian animation industry faces reverse outsourcing

Chennai, April 1 (PTI): With several home-spun projects at its disposal, India's animation industry has come of age and could even resort to "reverse outsourcing" to fill up a talent gap.

"Until recently, Indian companies had been relying on production works outsourced by giants like Disney, Paramount, Imax or Sony. Now they are confident of taking up pre-production, production, and even post-production on their own," Sumathi Sreedharan, director of Chennai-based Pentamedia Graphics, said.

Having released around 10 films independently, including "Hanuman," "Little Krishna," "Ramayan," "Pandavas," "Legend of Buddha," "Ali Baba" and "Son of Ali Baba" the more than a dozen big animation houses in the country have many more projects at their disposal, she said.

According to K Chandrashekaran, creative director of Thiruvananthapuram-based Toonz Animation, the Rs 7-crore success of "Hanuman," which was released in 2005, had proved that Indian audience was "grown up" for a full-length animation film.

But the industry, which faces a shortage of professionals, could go in for reverse outsourcing, he said.The cost of producing a half-an-hour animated programme in the US and Canada was 2,50,000 to 4,00,000 dollars and 1,20,000 dollars in South Korea and Taiwan, whereas in India it is 60,000 dollars.

"Though India has an edge over other countries with regard to cost factor, due to the deficit in our talent pool, production could be outsourced to countries like the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan", he said.

An independent survey by Arena Animation Academy has found that there would be a requirement of three lakh professionals in animation and related services by 2008 in the country, claimed R Krishnan, executive director of Aptech Ltd, the parent body of Arena. The industry currently has only around 20,000 skilled hands, he said.

Global assessment firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers in its recently released report on the Indian entertainment industry, predicted that the animation sector, which now earned Rs 1,200 crore, would mop up Rs 4,200 crore by 2009.

Several independent projects are coming up at animation houses, including ones on filmstars Amitabh Bachchan and Rajnikanth. The film on Big B had been initiated by Toonz.

Another project of Toonz is "Hanuman-2," being produced in association with Percept Pictures, which places the "baby simian god" in the contemporary world and is set to hit the theatres soon, Chandrashekaharan said.

Adlabs Films Ltd plans two films in 2008 -- one on Tamil superstar Rajnikant and another on children apparel retailing brand, Gini & Jony.

Media Factory India has lined up a five million dollar 3-D project, "Magik" for release in the summer of 2008. BR Films plans to release its "Krishnaleela" in May. Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd. has lined up "Ghatothkach: Master of Magic" for later this year.

Pentamedia, which has already produced six animated films on its own, is working on Sindbad sequels, "Tarzan and Aliens" and Ramayan. Sreedharan said the multiplex culture had also helped in the success of Indian animation films.

According to Sreedharan, the trend in the Indian industry was to search the country's ancient treasure house of stories -- epics and legends -- for content.

Sreedharan was confident that Indian mythological characters and stories would be able to woo western audiences if the presentation was good. But Chandrashekharan said Indian industry still lacked "adventure-packed racy scripts" to sell ethnic content outside the country.

The industry has to develop expertise in creating high-end characters similar to "Spiderman" or "Pokemon." The story ideas should be contemporary to drive audience to theatres, he said.

Though outsourcing of projects had helped in honing innate talents in India, there was a dearth of good content writers, he said.