WARNER BROTHERS CONSIDERING ANIMATION STUDIO IN KOLKATA
'KOLKATA: A team of executives of the Time Warner group that met West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee has said that entertainment company Warner Bros is considering setting up an animation studio here.
Richard Parsons, chief executive officer of the Time Warner group, spent a busy day Wednesday despite a shutdown called by the Trinamool Congress and spoke to Bhattacharya for over an hour.
Time Inc editor-in-chief John Huey, Fortune Money Group president Vivek Shah, Time Warner (International) senior vice president Tom Peter Wolff, Time Inc international relations and public policy director Alvin Lee accompanied Parsons on the trip.
"We were extremely happy to meet him. The chief minister wants us to set up a state-of-the-art animation studio here. We will discuss it and send a team shortly to explore how we can carry the proposal forward," Parsons said.
"The chief minister told us about his government's success in the education sector and the talent pool here. So he wants our expertise to set up animation academies and also state-of-the-art studios and laboratories," added Parsons, who presented a pack of DVDs - including a Harry Potter movie and "Gone With The Wind" - to Bhattacharya.
Earlier in the day, Parsons got a whiff of Bengal politics when he met firebrand opposition leader Mamata Banerjee.
Mamata Banerjee gifted him five of her paintings and a copy of the party mouthpiece, "Jaago Bangla" (Wake Up, Bengal).
"I am extremely impressed with her. She is a courageous lady," said Parsons.
Over lunch, Parsons interacted with industrialist Sanjiv Goenka, actress Rituparna Sengupta and others from the field of arts.
Time Warner and ABP Pvt Ltd, which publishes The Telegraph and the Ananda Bazar Patrika, have reached an understanding to launch the Indian edition of Fortune, the world's leading business magazine, and the visit of the team to India was part of the formal announcement for the tie-up.
Animation industry hit by talent crunch
NEW DELHI: Faced with an acute talent crunch, India’s bid to become a potential outsourcing hub for post-production work in digital technology for animation and visual effects could well just stay a dream.
According to a recent Nasscom-sponsored Animation India study 2007, India will need over 3,00,000 professionals in content development and animation segment by 2008 to cope with the growing demand.
At present, there are 12,000 people working in this industry.
According to the CII-AT Kearney study released during ‘The BIG Picture’ -- conference held as part of the ongoing 38th International Film festival of India at Goa -- the total cost of making a full length movie in India is around $15 to 25 million while the same would cost approximately $100 to 125 million in the US.
India’s nascent $285 million animation industry is slated to grow to one billion dollar by 2010. This, coupled with low overhead costs, is making India a hub for outsourcing of post-production work.
Industry fears that such rising demand faced with talent crunch, will lead to huge manpower costs.
Salaries paid to editors and other technical staff is also likely to increase many-fold from the current average ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs lakh per month.
Most companies, now in a bid to retain their trained staff are resorting to a ‘service contract’ thereby, binding the employee to their company for a brief period of time.
DQE plans 3D animation studio in Kolkata
Hyderabad-based DQ Entertainment Ltd (DQE) India, one of the largest animation production houses in the country in terms of number of employees, is planning to set up a 3D animation studio in Kolkata to tap the talent base in West Bengal.
With more than 3000 professionals on its pay roll, DQE, in the next one year, is expected to recruit around 700-800 fresh animators coming out of various animation training centres in Bengal, government sources said.
DQE works in the areas of 2D, 3D and flash animation production in the entertainment segment that has a market size of around Rs 900 crore. The company also has presence in console gaming.
This will be the first 3G animation studio not only in Bengal but also in the eastern region. DQE here is expected to work on 3G animation projects in joint collaboration with foreign animation production houses. It will also do jobs outsourced by Companies like Disney, Universal, Nickelodeon and Sony.
DQE has asked for 10 acres at a suitable location in Kolkata from the state government to build a workspace of one million sqft, government sources said.
The vice-president of DQE, Sumedha Sarogi, said: "We have expressed our desire to set up a studio in the city. We are discussing it with the state government. I can't say anything beyond this."
The decision comes at a time when DQE got listed on the London Stock Exchange last Tuesday and the company's stock closed at 140 pence on Thursday. Sarogi did not disclose the last year's revenue. According to a senior state government official, as a large number of young animators working with DQ Entertainment are from Kolkata's Webel Animation Academy, the company has taken the decision to have a studio in the city. "Out of 500 students we have placed in various animation Companies, nearly 250 work with DQE," the official said
ANIMATION NEWS
While India produces very little feature animation for domestic consumption (where are the India Pixar’s?) they are beginning to be the back office for US majors Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, Sony and other major production studios. Moreover there are companies like Image Metrics, Autodesk, and Soft Image that are looking at the feasibility of setting up shop in India according to sources.
In an interview with the Business Standard, KPMG Advisory Services (P) Ltd Director Jaiddep Ghosh said, “Although India is the largest media consuming market in the world, only 1 per cent of the US market size which is estimated at $10 billion, so far the animation is concerned, it is currently pegged at $600 million.”
Which means India has vast potential and will more see more and more foreign and domestic investment in this area. Ghosh further goes on to add, “the Indian market size is extremely fragmented with the top players accounting for 10-15 per cent of the industry turnover. Further, most of the players are direct or indirect off-shoots of the Indian BPO boom. This legacy and low indigenous demand forced most of the players to adopt the outsourcing business model.”
According to the the Business Standard, domestic animation studios like Toonz Animation, Crest Communication, Maya Entertainment, UTV Toons, Zee, etc. Also, Pritish Nandy Communication has plans for five full-length 3-D animated bollywood films and has signed a $25-million deal with Florida-based animation company Motion Pixel Corporation. Crest Animations has entered into a three-movie co-production agreement with Lions Gate, a major movie studio. Also, animation studio DQ Entertainment has made a pact with US-based Electronic Arts to work on PC games.
When asked why just few companies in India are into animation business, Ghosh said, “Animation needs a much larger investment and longer production circles. However, it has very long shelf lives and content leverage scope. A typical animation movie may take 2 years for completion unlike general movies. Further it is labor intensive, although with the advent of computers, the work has been simplified and is a relief from the days when each frame had to be drawn by hand. It is estimated that the labor may account for 70-80 per cent of the total costs for a 2-D animation production. It is lower for 3-D animation. Further, animation products are expensive to produce, on an average animation costs 5-15 times more than a live product.”So in summary, while India produces more movies than anywhere else in the world, they are far behind in technological animation movies. That means India potentially has a lot of growth in this area. It’s definitely an industry to invest or watch.
