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MUMBAI: Unlike the Indian cinema industry, which
has brands like the Khans and the Bachchans
participating in marketing stints to promote
the end product that would consequently pull
in audiences into theatres and create box office
hits, the nascent yet growing Indian animation
industry is still to witness anything of such
kind, at least in the near future. This is because
the industry is still under the spell of outsourced
content.
Hence,
industry experts and marketers, present at the
Animated Feature Forum in Mumbai on 23 August
to discuss the future prospects of the Indian
animation industry, believe that the only way
to drive brand India into animation is by producing
"good original content".
The
Animated Feature Forum was organised by Animation
Xpress with an aim to provide professionals
from both the cinema and the animation industry
with a platform to share and discuss their expertise
domain.
According
to Walt Disney India managing director Mahesh
Sampat, the Indian animation industry is not
only apprehensive about creating original content
but also doubtful about the potential that the
domestic market holds for the industry. "Since
we as Indians, have grown up watching animated
films, mostly comprising non-Indian content,
we continuously seem to be under the influence
of these outsourced materials. Well, now we
have to start realising the potential that Indian
art holds for us. The Indian film market witnesses
more that three billion theatre admissions every
year and 75 per cent of its revenue comes in
from theatrical releases. Hence, there is a
huge potential in the domestic market itself,
which the industry needs to tap."
Live
action feature film directors, who now desire
to walk into this new art form, believe that
the biggest challenge in making animation films
lay in scripting, story telling technique and
visual design. They also state that if these
challenges can be met confidently, then the
return on investments are huge.
Govind
Nihalani, whose first animation film is set
to release by 2008 year-end, believes, "The
animated genre can be targeted at all age groups.
Hence, Indian content needs expertise in scriptwriting
to maintain universality. We need to engage
people, and only a good script, clubbed with
a fantastic visual identity, has the potential
to do so. Once we can master the craft of scripting
and visualisation, we can create an emotional
connect with the audience, and once that is
created, our ROI will definitely be huge. This
is because the audience would want to experience
the film again and again."
Meanwhile,
marketers like Turner theatrical head and L&M
Jiggy George believe that though, currently,
the merchandising prospects of the animation
industry is negligible, with the growth of the
retail segment, along with the mobile and gaming
market, the growth prospects of the "animation
merchandising" market also looks optimistic.
"Currently,
the retail market, home video segment, and the
digital, mobile and gaming market are growing
at an incomprehensible speed. Along with this,
the animation industry is also growing at a
rate of 140 per cent per annum. Furthermore,
the industry is migrating from the small screen
to the big screen. Its products are now fighting
against live action films to capture that same
Friday release slot in the same multiplexes.
This means, the modules to fully exploit these
properties that did not exist earlier, are now
visible to us as marketers," says George.
"Also,
since animation films generally have a very
long shelf life, they can be exploited for a
very long time. However, this exploitation,
and hence merchandising, can happen only when
the product (film) has created a 'brand stickiness'
for itself. This is because, its only when the
consumers recall the brand, will they buy the
merchandise. Thus, to create that brand stickiness,
the content created will require being seamlessly
powerful and original," George adds.
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