Indian animation industry has the potential of becoming world-class
Amit Baadkar, who works for Pixar Animation Studios, believes that the biggest challenge facing Indian animators has to do with developing a work culture where young talent is nurtured and a spirit of mutual support prevails, writes Sugandha Rawal.
international audience. Once you have a great storyline, that will really help (Indian animation industry) compete globally.”
According to a FICCI-KPMG report, India’s animation industry generated revenues to the tune of Rs 51.1 billion in 2015, marking a growth rate of 13.8%. The 2016 revenues were Rs 59.5 billion with growth of 16.04%. It also stated that the domestic animated films “struggle at the box office due to under penetration of screens and direct competition with high quality Hollywood animated content”.
Be it Indian-American Pixar artist Sanjay Patel, Shweta Viswanathan, technical director in the Disney Animation team, Avneet Kaur, a simulation technical director at Walt Disney Animation Studios, or Baadkar himself—several animation artistes of Indian origin prefer to work in the West instead of in India.
Asked about the reason behind it, Baadkar says it is global exposure.
“It is not the concept of the country— more like where can I find the best opportunity. For me, when I work on a movie, I know that this movie is going to be seen globally and that excites me as an artiste,” he said, and added: “You want to get your work out to the most number of people and that excites a lot of people here. They come and work here because they know that their work of art will be appreciated globally.”
According to a FICCI-KPMG report, India’s animation industry generated revenues to the tune of Rs 51.1 billion in 2015, marking a growth rate of 13.8%. The 2016 revenues were Rs 59.5 billion with growth of 16.04%. It also stated that the domestic animated films “struggle at the box office due to under penetration of screens and direct competition with high quality Hollywood animated content.
From Karwar to Mumbai to the Middle East to Pixar studio in San Francisco, Baadkar, who visits his parents in India once a year, says his animation adventure started with watching the Jungle Book cartoon, and then Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park opened the gates of this virtual world for him.
“Jurassic Park blew my mind. I saw the making of the film and got to know that they did that inside a computer. From that point onwards, I got attracted to the world of animation.”
Looking back at his journey, he said: “When my dad got me a computer, all I did was learn animation on my own. I came to the US in 2007 to study visual effects and animation, and applied to a lot of companies after gradu- ation. Pixar was the first one to reply to me and offered me a residency, which is a oneyear internship, as an effects artiste. After a year, they offered me a full time position.”
Ever since, he has worked on 13 short and feature films starting from Cars 2. He has also worked on Brave, Monsters University, Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur and Cars 3, which is slated to release in India on 16 June.
Baadkar also said i t “wasn’t very challenging” to adjust in a foreign country as he was used to meeting new people and living in a different country. IANS