Bangalore pitches for leadership in animation business

21st September 2011
Bangalore  pitches for leadership in animation business
At the inaugural of KAVGC Summit 2011. (L to R) Balakrishna M.R., President, ABAI;Rajat Jain, Chairman, Mobile2Win;Sri. M.N. Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary IT BT S&T & eGovernance;Dominic Casey, Consulate General of France; BIren Ghose, Chairman, ABAI and Country Head Technicolor India

Coverage courtesy  ANIMATIONXPRESS.COM

Known for its IT prowess, Bangalore is also emerging as a preferred home for the Animation, VFX, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) sector. With the Karnataka Government planning a new policy for the industry, it is all set to become the preferred destination for international and local projects.
Already several Hollywood biggies including the DreamWorks have set up their studios in Bangalore and some of the worlds to productions are conceptualized and created in Bangalore. The Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics Industry in India has achieved a significant growth over the past few years with a CAGR of 26% during 2006-2010 and is now Rs.646 billion (2010) as established by PWC.
In this backdrop, the department of IT, BT and ST Govt. of Karnataka and the Association of Bangalore Animation Industry (ABAI) join hands for the second consecutive year to extend their co-operative for the AVG industry in organizing a summit on Animation, Visual Effects and Gaming last wek.
“Karnataka, thanks to Bangalore, has been an excellent example of growth in the AVGC sector and a great pedigree of international MNCs has chosen to set up and expand their studios here. We see this as just the beginning of a much larger eco-system, which is still in its early maturity phase, and ABAI partnering with several stakeholders and industry would like to evolve this considerably with a strategic policy. The purpose of the summit is to showcase Bangalore as the pioneer in collaboration and innovation between the government, industry players and academic institutes in the AVG segment. In fact the summit is meant to serve as an eye opener and be the catalyst in creating a “collaborative enterprise” between these various constituencies,” says M.R. Balakrishna, President of ABAI.
According to him, an exclusive policy to animation, VFX, Gaming and Comics will help the industry and increasingly the trend towards interconnectivity between economies, enterprises, societies and governments is giving rise to a new order of development. As new expectations of markets shift the measure of value, India and other emerging economies play an increasing role in fulfilling those needs.
The industry leaders believe that a new separate policy on Animation, VFX, Gaming and Comics helps create a platform for brand building and business development as experts believe India has not even 1% of the Global Business, Karnataka will benefit from being the 1st mover and attracting a huge pipeline of work if it moves now.
Karnataka currently has more than 20 training institutes imparting AVGC related training through more than 60 campuses across the state. More than 10,000 students are undergoing training (study done in 2010). This figure is likely to increase to 25,000 by the next two years. More than 2000 professionals are employed in the education and animation production units in the state apart from web and content development
Karnataka AVG industry has yet another advantage of having some of the major suppliers of software tools and technologies to the Industry such as HP, AMD, NVIDIA, etc. located within Karnataka and more specially Bengaluru.
“This summit will serve to strengthen the Governments initiatives for the fast growth of the AVG industry in Karnataka and to ensure the State to be a leader in the Indian scenario.” said M N Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary of IT, BT and ST Govt. of Karnataka. “We have seen an overwhelming growth in the visual effects, gaming and animation industry and are proud that the state is now contributing to some of the world’s best products in this area”, he added.
“Bangalore is emerging as a strong epicenter for the AVG community. The State lends itself to being a great environment for artists’ and technicians in the creative field to live and work. We are sure that with the support of the Government, Bangalore will continue to grow not only in its present eminence in serving Hollywood, but also start partnering with regional and local initiatives ,” Said Biren Ghose, Country Head, Technicolor Indian and Chairman, ABAI.

Links to full story and  more coverage by Animation XPress:

http://www.animationxpress.com/index.php?file=story&id=39971  
http://www.animationxpress.com/index.php?file=story&id=39981  
http://www.animationxpress.com/index.php?file=story&id=40001  
http://www.animationxpress.com/index.php?file=story&id=39991  
http://www.animationxpress.com/index.php?file=story&id=40091  
http://www.animationxpress.com/index.php?file=story&id=40071

Sep 21 2011