Animation gains popularity in India - Post News

Post, Oct, 2003 by Ritesh Gupta

NEW DELHI, INDIA -- A 2D animated music video for Indian audiences--a re-mixed version of a three-decade-old Hindi movie song--is not a common sight, but when Mumbai-based Famous House of Animation (www.famousstudios.com) was asked to create just that, it was considered to be a major challenge for the studio since nothing like this had bee done in India before.

The video shows a smitten boy who tries to win the heart of a girl through daring stunts. On the project, Famous's goal was to prove the competence of Indian studios. Says Famous creative director E. Suresh, "The objective was to come out with an animated music video with a difference and to prove to our own people that we don't need to go out of India to get such work done. This kind of a music video has been done abroad [using 2D animation] but our uses unique visual styling and story."

This music video is just one example of many that proves that animation work, here, is on the rise. Famous House of Animation and other domestic studio such as Crest Communications, Color Chips (www.colorchipsindia.com) and UTV Toons (www.utvtoons.com) have been busy shaping animation content for Bollywood movies, advertising, television programs, including live cricket matches, and music videos.

2nZ Animation Co. (www.2nz.com) executive producer/business head Marvin Fernandez says, "Animation has gained importance because of its ability to enhance the value of our cricket broadcast without taking anything away from cricket itself. It also has the ability to focus on certain target audiences and further localization, depending on individual channel needs." 2nZ created the animated character Tiger for Sony Entertainment Television during the coverage on ESPN Star Sports of the cricket World Cup this past March.

In April, ESPN Star (www.espnstar.com) created four new characters, portraying the diversified culture of India, for its regular cricket match coverage. According to Raymond Hume, director of cricket and Indian production, ESPN Software India, "These four animated characters embody the spirit of the quintessential cricket fan as they laugh and cry with the viewer through each match."

According to Ronnie Screwvala, chairman/CEO of UTV, which is producing India's first 2D animation primetime animation show, such technique suffers due to its weak positioning here."[Until now], there was no domestic market for animation in India. Three month ago, UTV decided to buck this trend."

Major advertisers, such as Unilever, Cadbury, Indo Nissin Food and Smirnoff, have been using animation in their campaigns this year. The techniques are also varied in these campaigns. For instance, Unilever this year, for the first time used a mix of 2D and 3D animation for its ice cream brand while Indo Nissin used clay animation.

Besides this, leading music channels such as News Corp.'s Channel [V] and MTV India, too, have been airing animation-oriented productions.