Hyderabad to house digital entertainment city

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Hyderabad, Jan 18 : The Andhra Pradesh government, in collaboration with FXLabs, Suresh Productions, Gemini TV and DQ Entertainment, announced its plans to roll out the country’s first digital entertainment city in Hyderabad. The city will house animation companies, game companies, film production houses, music studios, TV studios, training academies, regulation support office and an entertainment complex, all in one location.

Under the alliance, the state government will allot land in Hyderabad for the project, which will be managed and promoted by a Digital Entertainment City Task Force (DECTF). This consortium will comprise of industry leaders including Sashi Reddi - founder and chairman, FXLabs; Suresh Babu - MD & CEO, Suresh Productions; P Kiran - director, Gemini TV; Tapaas Chakravarthy - chairman & CEO, DQ Entertainment; JA Chowdhary, chairman, Nvidia and Sudhish R, CEO, Colorchips, along with the state government.

“The digital entertainment city will facilitate the development and establishment of a world-class infrastructure to encourage the growth of the animation, gaming, television, film, multimedia, radio, music and new media industries in Andhra Pradesh” SK Joshi, secretary to government, information technology & communications department said in a release.

According to Tapaas Chakravarthy, Indian animation and gaming industry is growing over 34.8% CAGR and is expected to cross $1.3 billion by 2010. Now with direct development and investment for animation productions and gaming productions by international majors and bollywood majors including the core animation industry itself, the growth projected by NASSCOM will outstrip all imaginations with such initiatives as taken by the state government.

Further, subscription revenues are projected to be the key growth driver for the Indian television industry over the next five years, both from pay TV homes as well as increased subscription rates. The buoyancy of the Indian economy will drive the homes, both in rural and urban (second TV set homes) areas to buy televisions and subscribe for the pay services. New distribution platforms like DTH and IPTV will only increase the subscriber base and push up the subscription revenues.”

A training academy for various courses in digital entertainment is expected to be launched in June 2008. The initial coverage of courses will be in film production and animation. The first phase of the digital entertainment city is targeted to be ready by December 2008. The project will include training academies to provide industry recognized certification courses, animation companies, game companies, film production and music studios, a regulation support office, an entertainment complex and exhibition complex. Attracting business and intellectual mind share, the proposed Centre of Excellence is intended to serve as a platform for all media related academies and businesses to develop collectively.