Overview of the Indian Animation & VFX Industry

India has come a long way in animation since the 1930’s when DadasahebPhalke made the first stop-motion film. Animation is the creation of moving pictures or images with the help of specialized software. Whereas, VFX refers to the creation of visual effects also referred to as VFX by combining real life images with animation using specialized software. Animation & VFX are used not just in film & television but also in gaming, education & medicine apart from other interesting uses. It is expected that the Indian animation industry will swell to about 60 billion rupees by the year 2015. 

Even though the global market for animation and gaming stands at USD 122 billion dollars the Indian animation industry only has a small portion of this. In recent times, global players such as Disney & Cartoon Network have set up shop in India and major Hollywood production houses constantly outsource work to companies such as Tata Elxsi, Red Chilies & Reliance MediaWorks however still the industry faces challenges. 

The advantages that the Indian animation/VFX industry brings is that of cheap labour and lower costs of production however motion pictures do not generate as much revenue as the films of the west. For example, Disney’s ‘Frozen’ crossed USD 500 million dollars and is still going strong at the global box office whereas India’s top grossing animation film from 2012 ‘ChotaBheem’ could only garner INR 5 crores at the box office. The perception is mostly that in India the mass market doesn’t see animation as a film worth watching on the big screen. That being said a major chunk of revenues for such ‘brands’ come from merchandising deals still the revenue is not even close to a Pixar or DreamWorks production.

India has seen its fair share of animation ‘duds’ as well. Yashraj Films foray into the space with Roadside Romeo in the last decade barely broke even. Disney-UTV’s 2012 30 crore animation magnum opus ‘Arjun: The Warrior Prince’ was another disappointment. So where is the Indian animation industry lacking? Industry insiders feel that firstly, it should be granted industry status and be given SOP’s and grants by the government as they feel that the sector generates a fair share of foreign exchange for the government. Secondly, they feel that taxes & duties should be waived off or reduced on the import of high end computers & equipment that the animators use. Lastly, the quality of animators needs to become better. Even though many institutes have sprung up across the nation however very few of them are a part of a university; they operate as fly-by-night operators in major cities. Therefore quality of curriculum, content and delivery varies from centre to centre. Although a lot of them have international partnerships, very few actually enforce them.

Once these challenges are met the sector can see a surge in revenues as well as becoming an interesting job opportunity for the country’s emerging creative youth.

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