Despite tremendous potential, Indian animation and gaming industry is still at a nascent stage as compared to the global market calling for some quick and radical steps to get going.
The animation and gaming industry, which was once considered just for kids, has actually outstretched its reach to the youth and the experienced alike. Erstwhile animation and game like Duck Tales and Marios have now been replaced by high definition 3D movies and game consoles like Avatar, Grand Theft Auto and San Andreas, which are catering to all genres. In tandem with demand, the global animation and gaming sector too is now on high growth path. But the basic problem for India at the moment is the fact that the country, which has been the dominant player in fields of global IT related services and outsourcing, has been cornered completely. One can imagine the scenario from the very fact that while India commands a whopping 51% share in the global IT outsourcing and BPO market, the contribution is much lesser than 10% in case o animation and gaming. So the question remains why such a situation has arisen in the first place?
Animation is not a very new concept in India. It started way back in 1974 when Doordarshan aired Ek anek aur ekta, a short educational movie in Hindi. Then the trail followed, but in bits and pieces. Gayab Aaya, which was aired in 1986 became the first animated series and finally Roadside Romeo became the first 3D animated movie in 2006. In fact, animated movies like Hanuman, Ramayana, and Jumbo have done fairly well adding an impetus to the growth of the industry in India. But despite that, as pointed out by a research report published by Deloitte and Assocham, Indian domestic animation and gaming industry is a minuscule 0.6% of the worldwide animation and gaming market.
There is another key factor that is working against the Indian animation industry at moment; and that is lack of support from the domestic film industry. Though many of the industry people still believe that the Indian audience is not yet ready for such movies, box office reports have a different story to say. For example, while no Indian animation movie (with due apologies to Bal Hanuman, Ramayana – The Epic and Toonpur Ka Superrhero) witnessed a proper all India theatrical release in the past couple of years, Hollywood animation movies like Ice Age 3 and Monsters VS Aliens enjoyed huge success on Indian soil. For that matter, Avatar mopped up over Rs. 1billion from India and did really well even when it was launched in regional languages. And the less one talks about Indian animation movies in US, the better - there’s none in history that has ever released in the US.
The scale is still very minuscule, which clearly points out that Indian animation and gaming industry has to first deal with its inherent problems including manpower crunch, funds and lack of government support before it can match up with the global growth trajectory.
