Development of Big Studios
The decade of 2000 saw a gradual development of big animation studios in India that had started riding the outsourcing wave; reason being an English speaking workforce working at a low cost.
Amongst these were Toonz Animation India, Jadoo Works, DQ entertainment, Silvertoons, Crest Communications, Pentamedia Graphics Padmalaya films, Graphiti Multimedia, 2nz animation, Paprikaas, Maya Digital Studios Private Limited, UTV Toons, Technicolor India, Heart animation, Millitoons, Sriven, Nipuna services, Big Animation, Green Gold Animation, ACK, Rhythm and Hues, Tata Elxsi-VCL, Primefocus, Prana and Color Chips.
Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Trivandrum played host for these studios.
Adhering to high quality work and timely execution of services allowed these companies to venture into co-production agreements with various international content owners. An extreme shortage of a workforce familiar with new technology made them run a training programme in their studios. Some of these studios created their own intellectual property as well.
Tata Interactive Systems
Animation didn’t only remain involved into the entertainment sector but also sought possibilities in the areas of education. In 1990 came Tata Interactive Systems, which till today is engaged in the area of e-learning, developing innovative creative content by effective use of animation.
TIS also hold several Teacher’s Training Programme to train the teachers. For them Animation has always been a medium by which cultures and societies conveyed important messages.
The company has been working in the areas of Education, Healthcare, Retail, Manufacturing, Transportation, Banking and Defense.
Image source: Tata Interactive Systems
Maya Digital Studios
Maya Digital Studios
'Captain Vyom', India’s first science fiction TV series was produced by Maya entertainment. It showcased the possibilities created by new C.G. and VFX technology to both filmmakers and audiences in India. Ketan Mehta an internationally acclaimed filmmaker set up the studio in Mumbai in 1996 along with the multifaceted Deepa Sahi. Beginning with a team of ten, Maya studios started a training programme MAAC – Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematic to bring about well-trained animators in the country.
As the maker of the feature length 'Ramayana- The Epic' (2010) in 3D, Maya has evolved with time, keeping pace with the best in global trends within the Animation & Visual Effects industry. They have also been focused on 2D to stereoscopic 3D conversion of content. Bollywood cult classic 'Sholay' and the animated film 'Sons of Ram' being already covered. One of Maya's future plans of creating its own animated TV series 'Motu Patlu’ is already in action, currently running on the Nick channel. Another successful venture is 'Vir' the Robot Boy playing on the Hungama channel.
As a pioneer of 3D animation technology in India, Maya believes that the only way to continue in a creative industry is to constantly innovate and evolve providing a wide range of content options for different audiences.
Image source:
http://www.mayadigitalstudios.com/index.html
Toonz Animation
The credit for the following successes: ‘Return of Hanuman’ (feature film), ‘Tenali Raman’ (TV series), ‘Pakdam Pakdai’ and ‘Kid Krish’ goes to Toonz Animation Studio. Apart from providing services to Canada, UK and France they fulfilled the challenge of creating their own IP. The studio has also established an animation school called 'Toonz Academy' in 2002.
Image source:
http://toonz.co/distribution.html
Toonz, was originally established in Los Angeles by a US based entrepreneur G.A. Menon who set up Toonz Animation India in Techno Park -Trivandrum in the year
1999. In the same year they initiated an event called ‘A week with the masters’.
“It was formed to celebrate the art of animation and we called various animation masters from across the globe such as Rob Coleman, animation director of `Star Wars 3’ and Bill Plympton"
— Mr. P. Jayakumar
CEO of Toonz animation. As the year 2014 was the 15th anniversary of Toonz, they decided to bring together the Indian animation masters to discuss a road map for the Indian animation industry. The two-day program provided a platform for animation enthusiasts to meet and learn from the 13 great masters of this industry.
Setting their wheels in motion during 2000, Pune based Big Animation (a Reliance Group Company) and Green Gold Animation from Hyderabad created milestones within animation using local content to create ‘Little Krishna' and 'Chhota Bheem'. Small but powerful both claimed a big space in the small world of animation.
Big Animation
'Little Krishna' was the first Indian animation series to be acquired by an international channel Nickelodeon. With a multifaceted team, the studio produced award-winning projects like 'The Bad Egg' (short animation film), 'Krishna aur Kans' (feature film) and 'Shaktimaan' (TV series).
Little Krishna
Image source: http://www.relianceanimation.com/
Green Gold Animation
Green Gold Animation
'Chhota Bheem', the animated little boy of Dholakpur enjoyed a viewership of millions, going on to establish his own line of merchandise available across stores in India. The creator, Green Gold studio was launched in 2001, with Rajiv Chilaka as its founder; their focus being – creating entertaining content for children of all ages.
Image source: http://www.greengold.tv/chhota-bheem.php
Rising from being a boutique studio, Green Gold studios with 4 people designing websites, cooperate films & commercials swearing by their motto 'Live today and fight tomorrow', fought fierce battles making their way up in the value chain. ‘Bongo’, 'Vikram Betaal', 'Krishna' and 'The Mighty Raju' (TV series) are some of their other IP’s. Their first feature length animation - 'Chhota Bheem and The Curse of Damyaan'—was released in India in 2012, followed by 'Chhota Bheem And The Throne of Bali'. In 2014 they released 'Mighty Raju: Rio Calling'.
As a localization strategy, Disney Channel India has partnered with Green Gold producing 3 series: 'Chor Police', 'Luvv Kush' and ‘Arjun - Prince of Bali’.
Image source:
http://www.greengold.tv/chhota-bheem.php
