Monday, May 19, 2003		Feature

Animation outsourcing may be the next big thing
Sumeet Chatterjee

AFTER carving out a niche for itself in the global technology outsourcing market, India is fast going up the animation-outsourcing ladder by capitalising on its vast pool of low-cost skilled professionals.

India is a recent entrant in the global animation scene but demand for its production services is growing at a fast pace.

And with local animation design studios gradually establishing their credentials overseas and building their skill sets in this high potential global market, animation production outsourcing to India in poised to boom, believe experts.

"We have all right ingredients to become a worldwide powerhouse in animation outsourcing business," said P. Jaykumar, director (operations) of Kerala-based Toonz Animation India.

"Indian animation companies have the raw talent, ingenuity, cultural heritage, language, low labour rates and entrepreneurial spirit. We have the cost and language advantage over numerous other competing countries," Jaykumar told IANS.

"If Indian studios continue to improve the quality of their work and if they manage their businesses well, animation will become a major industry in India."

Set up with an investment of $7 million in 1999, Toonz Animation has emerged as one of the leading players in the nascent Indian animation market. Besides focusing on developing its own cartoon animation, skits, serials and full-length feature films for the export market, Toonz also has a co-production deal with Britain-based Tree House Production for a fun animation series.

According to an animation industry study report, Indian animation production costs are the lowest, as compared to production rates in the USA, Canada, South Korea and the Philippines — the major global centres for animation production.

While the rates for production of a half-hour television animation programme would be around $ 2,50,000-4,00,000 in the USA and Canada, it is in the region of $ 60,000 in India, the report says.

The total animation production by Indian companies is expected to rise from $ 600 million in 2001 to $1.5 billion by 2005, while the total global animation production would touch $51.7 billion. "Indian animation producers are barely skimming the tip of the global animation production services iceberg," says a study report of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom). "A vast unexplored potential still exists that can be tapped by Indian players."

The animation market in India today is characterised by the presence of multiple players including Crest Communications, UTV Toons, Pentamedia Graphics, Padmalaya Telefilms, Moving Pictures and Toonz Animation. The animation studios are catering to the requirements of segments such as feature films, television programmes, advertisements and computer games. Currently, Indian animation players are predominantly catering to the needs of overseas television programme production companies with a relatively low penetration in areas such as feature film production and gaming. "Trends in the global animation market shows increasingly companies are outsourcing their requirements to markets such as Asia Pacific," says Alice Manuel, head (production) of Escotoonz, an arm of New Delhi-based industrial group Escorts.

Manuel says outsourcing is also happening because studios are coming up in developing markets that offer world-class infrastructure and quality processes to produce animation work that’s delivered on time and within estimated cost.

India is, however, up against substantial competition from countries within the Asia Pacific region such as the Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea that have been active in the animation production market for a longer period.