Indian
animation to the fore at NATPE
(Posted on 6 February 8:20 pm)
The
animation segment of the Indian television industry is all set
to become an international hub if the the fantastic response received
by Indian companies at The National Association of Television
Program Executives 2001, a premier international television programming
convention held recently at Las Vegas, Nevada, is anything to
go by.
Held
from 22 to 25 January, the 38th NATPE is an annual affair dedicated
to facilitate the continued growth and convergence of all content
across multiple distribution platforms. "It is a good platform
for networking, with quite a few deals taking place," Amit Khanna,
chairman of Reliance Entertainment, said on Tuesday.
"India
is fast emerging as an entertainment hub for Asia. The very fact
that there was a special session - Adventures in Indian Television
- devoted to India proves the point," Khanna said. Regarding the
response to the session held on India, Khanna said: "It was well
attended." The special session was chaired by Bhuvan Lall, executive
director of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, while on the panel
were eminent personalities in the Indian entertainment sector.
Among them, along with Khanna, were V Chandrasekaran, chairman
& CEO, Pentamedia Graphics Ltd., Bill Dennis, president & CEO,
Toonz Animation India Ltd, Dheeraj Kapuria, North American Head,
Zee TV, Firdaus Kharas, chairman, UTV International LTD, and Ramesh
Sharma, chairman & managing director, Moving Picture Company.
Discussions
centred around the potential the Indian market held, whether international
channels and production companies could take advantage of the
developing multi-channel and convergent environment in India,
and the kind of programming and formats that were likely to work
in the country.
"This
time around the animation media got a good business thrust," said
Khanna. In the past two years animation had an export market of
$5 million and in this year itself it has a potential of touching
$50 million.
In
the near future, a lot of original animation programming from
Toonz Animation India LTD, Pentamedia Graphics LTD, UTV International
LTD, and other such companies from India are likely to make a
splash internationally.
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