A Look At The Animation and VFX Industry In India
In the past few years, the VFX and the animation industry has grown in leaps and bounds. In addition to boosting the domestic Media and Entertainment vertical, this prolific propulsion has also helped the global economy. In 2017, the industry reached a value of INR 67 billion – YoY growth of 23%.
India is rapidly developing into the global hub for animation. The country has an enviously large talent-pool of English speaking and low-cost animators well-versed with the nuances of western culture. Increased content consumption across tier II and tier III cities is further driving demand within the industry.
In 2017, the animation industry in India reached INR 17 billion – YoY growth of 13% over 2016. It is expected to maintain a CAGR of 11% through 2020.
What is driving the growth in the animation segment?
The animation segment is being driven by a combination of factors -
· Domestic content: Television is the driving force in the domestic segment. With insatiable demand from broadcast channels showing no signs of slowing down, this trend is expected to sustain itself for the foreseeable future.
· Digital platforms: The popularity of streaming services such as Amazon or Netflix and the advent of new platforms like Voot has accentuated the demand for animated content.
· Out-sourcing: The biggest studios in the world are outsourcing their production to Indian houses capable of delivering flawless animation content at a fraction of the cost. The big domestic houses, in turn, outsource a lot of their back-end processes to studios spread all over the suburbs and towns in India. Typically, the latter enjoy an average annual turnover of around INR 300 million.
Film and television is propelling the Indian animation trajectory
Television, digital platforms and film are driving the demand for animated content in the Indian market. While the domestic animation film industry is certainly in its infancy, aplenty Hollywood projects closely collaborate with Indian studios to get their production off the ground.
Growing destinations, international broadcasting
In 2017, both the quality and the volume of offshore work of broadcast companies greatly increased. Cost reduction options and repeat business from international broadcasters are widely expected to boost animation offshoring. In addition to the north and south America and the UK, France, the Middle-East and Germany are outsourcing the bulk of their TV productions to India. Furthermore, international distributors and studios have begun commissioning original IPs for a global digital and TV audience to Indian animation producers.
Differentiation through domestic broadcasting
According to the World Bank, in 2017, India had a population of around 373 million between the age groups of 0-14 years. Thanks to the proliferation of kid-friendly global animation content across television channels in India, children now enjoy hundreds of quality animation shows.
That being said, domestic broadcasters are looking to create brand loyalty and differentiation with their audiences. Consequently, television channels in India are enjoying an unprecedented quantity of domestically produced animation content. Today, IPs such as Motu Patlu and Chota Bheem are widely accepted as the benchmarks. This, in turn, has induced both content production houses and broadcasters to create sustainable IPs in Hindi as well as regional vernaculars.
Unfortunately, under the commissioning model, Indian broadcasters retain the IPs. As such, animation studios and creators do not receive the right impetus to generate original content. Fortunately, this trend is now being reversed across the board.
An explosion in the number of platforms, spike in consumption driven largely by free-falling data rates and the subsequent expansion of the audience base has led to an insatiable demand for content. With a surge in the production of content across a plethora of platforms, demand for post-production has also increased at a commensurate rate. As a result, the domain of VFX or special effects that increases the quality of visual content has enjoyed steady incremental traction in the past few years.
An explosion in demand for domestic content
The global movie industry presently finds itself amidst a sequel marathon to successful franchises. When creating a sequel, film-makers are actively striving to differentiate their vision from the prequels. Creating a stark difference in visuals is an excellent way to differentiate an artistic expression from its predecessors. Furthermore, it fuels speculation and creates buzz, especially during the opening weekend when anticipation and curiosity are at an all-time high.
Consequently, movie producers are now more inclined towards bigger budget allocation towards VFX. In 2017, Salman Khan fought wolves in the movie Tiger Zinda Hai. In the movie Zero, superstar Shah Rukh Khan used extensive CGI and VFX to look like a dwarf. In the upcoming movie Bharat, Salman Khan is expected to sport 5 different looks that span a staggering seventy years, starting in the 1940s. This feat will be achieved with the help of VFX and prosthetics.
Special effects are expected to play a larger and larger role in upcoming movies in the domestic film industry. Movie franchises such as Kick 2 and the hugely anticipated Race 3 are reported to have a much higher special effects involvement than their previous releases.
Big-budget Indian movies are eagerly pursuing a trend of 3D releases. This, in turn, has led to an exponential increase in conversion assignments. If not for anything else, film-makers prefer a 3D version simply to inspire awe among their audience members by way of heightened aesthetic appeal, similar to the release of Padmaavat.
Increased regional demand
Thanks to the meteoric success of Baahubali, regional film industries are waking up to the power of special effects. According to the Hindustan Times, Baahubali – The Beginning spent around INR 850 million of its INR 3 billion budget on special effects. According to The Hindu, Baahubali: The Conclusion, which was released in April 2017, involved 33 separate animation studios over a duration of 15 months in the post-production process.
Today, special effects studios are cropping up all over the place like mushrooms. 2.0 – the Tamil language sci-fi thriller featuring megastar Rajnikanth and superstar Akshay Kumar is the most expensive movie made in India ever and has used extensive special effects during its production. Around ten production houses worked round-the-clock to deliver more than a thousand shots for the movie.
Data cited in this article that has not been attributed to an authoritative body has been sourced from the FICCI-EY Media and Entertainment Report of 2018. As is amply evident, for young aspirants pursuing multimedia courses in Kolkata, the future looks very bright and promising indeed.
areudirty
janainaart
jbbartram-illu
origamiaround
dededos
2087