What perhaps began over a century ago with a humble toy, or rather, a rudimentary device for entertainment, the Praxinoscope, has turned into a gigantic, billion-dollar industry today. The Praxinoscope was invented by Frenchman Charles Emile Reynaud who is also credited with pioneering projected animated films, as he premiered his groundbreaking creation, Pantomimes Lumineuses on October 28, 1892, in Paris, a historic event now commemorated annually as International Animation Day by the Association Internationale du Film d'Animation (ASIFA).
Emile Reynaud and his pioneering initiatives were part of a progressive series of early inventions, later developments, and continuous advancements by others that gradually shaped the humongous global animation industry.
Of course, when one reflects on the history of animation, the first name that springs to mind is Walt Disney. A director, producer, animator, cartoonist, voice actor, and screenwriter from the United States, Disney’s pioneering spirit and innovation revolutionised the animation industry.
Renowned as the creator of Mickey Mouse, the first sound cartoon, the first technicolor cartoon, and the first feature-length cartoon, Disney is hailed as the central figure in the history of animation and the link between the animation industry’s past and its present. The Walt Disney Company he founded is today, one of the world’s largest entertainment conglomerates.
The immensely popular cartoon characters he created such as Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and Goofy, and the many animation films that his studio produced from the yesteryear classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, to recent ones such as The Lion King, Frozen, and Moana, all contributed to the popularity and growth of the global animation industry which is valued* at USD 391 billion.
How is India doing?
India is gradually warming up to the global animation play as it struggles to transition from an outsourcing hub to an IP creator. The Indian animation segment is valued at INR 38 billion** as per a 2023 FICCI-EY report. Hyderabad is emerging as an important production hub in the country with many animation and VFX studios establishing base in the city.
Indian animation studios have had mixed results in moving up the value chain to create their own intellectual property rights. Except for Green Gold Animation (creators of Chota Bheem), and to some extent Cosmos-Maya Studios (creators of Motu Patlu), no other animation company in India has been able to dent the market in terms of revenues, employment, and industry growth.
India still remains an outsourcing hub with most animation studios around the country largely depending on low-value production work outsourced by big overseas studios and production companies to survive. Though some studios in cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Trivandrum are trying to create their own IP and are also attracting high-value work such as character development from foreign studios in the US and Europe, business is predominantly outsourcing-dependent.
Happening Hyderabad
Hyderabad is one city that seemed to buck the trend and showed great promise. At one point, the city was home to the largest animation studio, DQ Entertainment (now defunct), with a headcount exceeding 5000, Green Gold Animation, India’s most successful studio, and scores of new animation studios.
Everything was going great guns and the city seemed all set to burst onto the international animation map. The investment climate was also friendly with significant initiatives over the years, such as GAME City and IMAGE Towers by successive governments being planned to build on the momentum and provide the thrust for growth.
Unfortunately, many of these much-needed initiatives, the latest one being the IMAGE Towers are yet to take off. While some of these initiatives have not made it past the planning stage and some seem to have been completely shelved, the most recent and important one, the IMAGE Towers is inching towards the completion stage and can give the required fillip to catapult Hyderabad to a dominant position on the international animation map.
A prestigious project taken up by the state government, the IMAGE (Innovation in Animation, Multimedia, Gaming, and Entertainment) Tower spread over an expansive 16 lakh square feet at Raidurg, Hyderabad, was planned as a futuristic growth driver for Animation, VFX, Gaming, Comics, Artificial Intelligence (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR)/Mixed Reality (MR) and other related sectors. The foundation stone for Image Towers was laid on November 5, 2017.
It’s been six years since, and there is little progress though other projects in the neighbourhood including The T-Hub 2 (start-up accelerator) and T-Works (a prototyping hub) have been completed and are fully operational now. While the Image Towers was to be up and running in 2023, there are reports that it is “likely” to be completed by the end of 2024, which is about 14 months ahead.
Losing out
Meanwhile, Hyderabad seems to be losing out to other Indian cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Chennai in the last five years in bagging big studio deals. In the last few years, some prominent global studios in the VFX/Full CG space such as Moving Pictures Company (MPC), Double Negative (DNeg), Framestore, Scanline, NetFX, JellyFish, Ghost VFX, Outpost VFX (UK-based), FOLKS (Pitch Black Entity), and most recently, the top player Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) opened their India facilities in Mumbai.
Many of these if not all, may have come Hyderabad’s way with substantial revenues to the state’s exchequer, had the IMAGE Towers been functional, a view entertained by many animation and VFX players in Hyderabad.
Though Image Towers got delayed due to the pandemic and other reasons, and while the remaining works are being done (though, not with the urgency that the industry wishes), all is not lost and it would certainly help if the government prioritizes the completion to the benefit of the animation and vfx industry in Hyderabad as well as the state of Telangana.
All is not lost yet
This fully equipped, state-of-the-art, plug-and-play facility designed to create the ideal environment for the animation industry to grow will provide built-up office space at subsidised rates to first-generation technocrat entrepreneurs as well as small and medium enterprises engaged in the sector. Many animation studios will be set up in the tower which can accommodate about 20,000 employees. The centre will be a key growth engine for tech exports and employment generation.
Image Towers can do wonders for the computer graphic industry in Hyderabad, and along with other projects, help buoy the image of Telangana state as one of the most promising investment destinations in the world. All it needs is a nudge by the government.
(The author RajaSekhar Buggaveeti is Founder and CEO of Creative Multimedia. Views expressed are his own)
