* In May, the AIM-listed animation & gaming Entertainment group, DQE Entertainment signed a Euro 9.2 million co-production deal with Paris-based entertainment group Moonscoop for an all-new original 3D animated TV series of The Jungle Book, to be developed and produced by DQE, adapted from the original writings of Rudyard Kipling.
* In June, DQE and its German, French and Irish associates followed it up by signing a deal with Classic Media, the owner of the Lassie brand, to develop a new series on the world?s most loved dog.
* Graphiti Multimedia has been working closely with Fido Dido co-founder Joanna Ferrone to develop 13 one-minute shorts of Fido. It will be beamed by a mainstream US broadcaster.
* Crest Animation Studios is delivering the first animated Hollywood film to be made by an Indian company, Alpha & Omega, to Lionsgate, the US distributor of hits like Rambo, Fahrenheit 9/11 and Meet The Browns.
* Fresh from the success of Little Krishna for television, BIG Animation is getting into co-production deals with international studios for animation feature films.
The global meltdown notwithstanding, over the past few months there have been a spate of co-production deals between domestic and international animation studios. Outsourcing often gives animation studios its bread and butter, but the meltdown has inevitably led to a fall in demand. Analysts say top animation studios in India are now concentrating on content creation to move up the value chain?some like Graphiti and Crest have been doing it for sometime now?and point out that cross-border collaboration is one way of doing it. ?International co-productions are crucial since an animation film needs huge investments,? says Ashish Kulkarni, CEO, BIG Animation.
?The domestic intellectual property market is not enough to sustain costs,? says Smita Jha, associate director, PwC. ?And though the bread and butter of most animation studios is outsourcing, at $40-50 an hour deals, studios have to develop intellectual property to move up the order, and co-producing international content is one way.?
It?s a business model that has helped DQE string a series of deals in the past few months. ?Co-production deals have picked up momentum in the last two years,? says Tapaas Chakravarti, chairman & CEO, DQE Group. ?We have tied up deals with European and American partners to co-produce Jungle Book, Lassie, The Little Prince and Elephant Boy,? he adds. Incidentally, Lassie, which has been owned by Classic Media of the US for 60 years, is the world?s second largest brand for pet foods and merchandising. ?Lassie is going 3D for the first time and we own the rights to that, we will produce the film and Classic will take the creative lead,? explains Chakravarti.
DQE is also set to announce the first TV animation series of Satyajit Ray?s favourite detective Feluda?the master film-maker had himself brought two of his stories to the silver screen, Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress) and Joi Baba Felunath (The Elephant God).
All the top players agree that the potential is huge, but as Crest Animation CEO AK Madhavan points out, ?animation is only six years old in India? it usually takes 10 to 20 years to build the industry. Every product goes through a life cycle, animation in India is still at an introductory stage.? In 2003, Crest delivered the first animated television show that went to the US from India, Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks. It went on to win Emmys and the Bafta in the animation category. ?And these were 52 half-hour episodes. Jakers! established that India can deliver on time, at a fantastic price and great quality,? says Madhavan. As Crest gets ready to launch Alpha & Omega in a co-production with Lionsgate next year, Madhavan says he?s excited about the fact that the Hollywood film made in India will have a mainstream release in the US and the world over. ?It?s a co-production in every way, where we have put in half the money and Lionsgate the other half,? he adds.
?Content-creation is the biggest satisfaction,? says an analyst, but in that field, ?the work is cut out for Indian animation studios.?
At Graphiti, the focus was on original content creation from the beginning, points out Munjal Shroff, director, COO & co-founder. ?It?s difficult to make a name, but it?s a long-term thing.? Having watched the animation space, Shroff and the top management noticed that as an outsourcing entity, one could achieve a huge scale but when markets became less lucrative, it tanked very fast too.
So, with a strong focus on content creation, Graphiti hasn?t looked back since it created Khulja Sim Sim for Star Plus, following it up by creating a TV series J Bole toh Jadoo, which was aired on Nick, a co-production with Nick channel. Now, Graphiti is working with international producers like Joanna Ferrone, and has also created Kul-Veera, a feature inspired from Mahabharata. Turner came in on the project and helped Graphiti develop it. Kul-Veera is a part of Snaptoons, a development initiative of Turner Asia, under which 14 studios across the world are developing next generation cartoons. ?You make more money in the long run if you create a character. You have to be prepared for returns in five years,? he explains.
The spinoffs are huge?think licensing and merchandising, home video rights, publishing rights?but the challenges are great too, not least a weak domestic market, an emotional mindset that animation is kids stuff and a talent crunch.
?Most of the top animation studios have moved a little away from outsourcing but with a weak domestic market, controlling the topline continues to be a challenge,? says Jha of PwC. ?But there is a big interest from the international market,? points out Shroff, ?if we produce good content with the right partners we will make money.? But he rues the fact that despite India being such a massive market, domestic animation hasn?t got a push from the broadcasting industry unlike in other countries where sometime at least 20% of the TV content has to be local. Japan, an analyst points out, could have such a strong animation industry because of a strong push from the domestic market.
That apart, talent too is a problem. DQE, which has 3,500 people working in India and abroad, is expanding. So are others like BIG Animation. Kulkarni points at an outdated arts curriculum, which hasn?t changed in decades. ?How can we have creative people if artistic skills have no space,? says an analyst. A formal education in animation started only in 2006 in India. This is a deterrent to creating original content. ?Our products are at a premature level,? admits Kulkarni, ?but in the next 4-5 years, ideas in animation will emanate from India.? There is also a mindset issue, that animation is meant only for kids.
BIG Animation is launching an animated series on a GEC channel next month to prove a point. ?If we don?t expand animation viewership to family enter-tainment, our market will never grow,? he points out. Till then, creating the Harry Potters and the Spider Mans will be the preserve of the West because no one, say analysts, can survive on the cost arbitrage advantage alone.