Ratatouille wins animation Oscar

Six years in the making, Emeryille's Pixar Animations Studios was rewarded for its patience and determination Sunday night when "Ratatouille" came away with the Oscar as the best animated film of the year.Scripted and directed by Brad Bird, who won two Oscars for Pixar's "The Incredibles," the film is the tale of a rodent named Remy, with delicate taste buds, who by chance is let loose on a classy Parisian restaurant and succeeds in winning over the city's top food critic. In his acceptance speech, Bird backhandedly thanked his junior-high guidance counselor, whose questioning of his career choice as a filmmaker prepared him for the grilling down by Hollywood producers. But, according to many critics, the night should have been a much larger triumph for the film. Although it landed five Oscar nominations and was ranked by many critics as one of the year's best, it was never a serious contender for best picture. And its other nominations across three different disciplines -- best original screenplay, best score, best sound mixing and best sound editing -- suggested the kind of broad consensus that often results in bigger awards. Its five nominations rank as the most ever for a computer animated film, and rate second among all animated films, only surpassed by the six received by Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." That picture, done in the traditional Disney style in 1991, stands as the only animated film to ever be nominated for best picture. If not for the best animated feature category, it's safe to say "Ratatouille" would have been strongly considered for best picture. Lewis, the film's producer, is quick to point out that he has no sour grapes with the academy -- and that he's ecstatic about the five widespread nominations.
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Animation & Gaming industry in India wants income-tax breaks

The animation and gaming industry in India wants income-tax breaks on a par with software companies to produce cheaper films and compete in the Asian market. Software companies housed in software technology parks enjoy tax breaks on their export profits. Though the benefit ends in March 2009, it might be extended for 10 years, considering that the surge in the rupee has impacted their bottom lines. The animation and gaming industry is lobbying for similar tax benefits. “We have given a formal proposal to the information and broadcasting ministry seeking a tax holiday on export profits under Section 10 A of the Income-Tax Act. The finance ministry has also been kept in the loop,” said Ficci animation and gaming forum chairman and DQ Entertainment CEO Tapas Chakravarti. The industry also wants government-sponsored animation institutions, with IIT stature. “We have also asked the I&B ministry to amend the TV Broadcast Bill to promote local content on Indian television channels. This has been done in countries such as France, Japan, China, South Korea and Canada where more than 50% of TV channels’ animation broadcast consists of local content,” Mr Chakravarti said. According to a Nasscomsponsored study, Animation India 2007, India will need over 3,00,000 professionals in the content development and animation segment by 2008 to cope with the growing demand. At present, there are only 12,000 domain experts in this industry. Nasscom had also made out a case for the government to hand-hold the animation and gaming industry by providing assistance in manpower development and infrastructure. The animation market in India is estimated at $285 million and is expected to grow to around $1 billion by 2010. India is turning out to be a hub for outsourcing post production work, thanks to the growing market and lower overhead costs. According to a CII-AT Kearney study, the cost of making a full length movie in India is around $15-25 million compared to $100-125 million in the US. The industry apprehends that India may lose this advantage if it does not build a vast talent pool. ( courtesy ET)

Zapak Budget 2.0 will have Money Games & analysis of budget

Zapak has some serious plans for the upcoming budget. It will launch Zapak Budget 2.0 - a microsite - in association with Reliance Capital, which will have various features. There will be an analysis of budget across categories by corporate honchos and celebrities, along with video bytes on people’s budget expectations, across various categories. The visitors to ‘Zapak Budget 2.0’ will also be able to upload content on various categories. Daily winners will be announced for the best entries.A special game called ‘Game for Money’ would be featured on this site, to help visitors de-stress. In the game, players can invest his money in various options. Once done, he moves ahead with the intent of earning more money by rolling a dice. The player moves across the blocks, depending on the number which appears on the dice, each of which has a different message – e.g.- ‘Cash Theft of 10,000’, after which the player’s total worth and value of insurance is scored. The Goal is to increase the player’s net worth. And like real life, it’s Game Over when the player goes bankrupt.Simple indicators on the micro site such as What’s Hot & What’s Not, What’s expensive & what’s cheaper and Policy Changes that will impact the common man will make sure that the visitors get the information useful to them. Visitors will also be able to calculate the tax payable and even chat with a financial specialist to put their anxieties to rest and solve their queries.

Get DotAsia domian name now!

DotAsia Organisation has launched the Celebrity Pioneer Program, offering Indian celebrities the priority to register their domain name with .asia before the registrations are opened for public later this month on 20 February 2008. Early adopters of the programme include Indian cricketer Kapil Dev, pop singer Shibani Kashyap, a TV star Rakshanda Khan, 'Indian Idol' fame Rahul Vaidya, and pop singer and 'VJ' Anoushka, amidst many others.
According to Edmon Chung, CEO, DotAsia Organisation Limited, "There are more than 450 million online customers in Asia, and the .asia domain name is a gateway to reach this largest Internet market in the world. While .com ignited the ecommerce boom in the US, .eu was created for Europe. .asia is the first global top-level-domain that is headquartered in Asia and will be the platform for growth of the region. The Pioneer Domains Program focusses on building positive usage of the .asia domain which in turn drives adoption and development for the Internet community across Asia."
Shibani Kashyap added, "I own ShibaniKashyap.com but I still opted to register ShibaniKashyap.asia and Shibani.asia to secure my cyber identity and to reach out to my fans in Asia with a domain that conveys even better relevance to the region. I intend on making previews of my songs and videos available on my shibani.asia website. I really think that artists should be proactive and book their .asia domain name before anyone else grabs it."
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Govind Nihalani too starts a new Animation Film

The director talks about his animation film Kamlu with Shilpa Jamkhandikar
After almost four years, one of India’s most acclaimed film-makers is back, but don’t expect another Ardh Satya or a Dhrohkaal from firebrand director Govind Nihalani. This time round, his focus of attention is Kamlu, a baby camel, the protagonist of his new animation film.
“I have always wanted to do animation, but earlier the budgets and the technology were a constraint. Now, however, we have so many facilities at our calling that this was the time for me to jump into animation,” Nihalani says.
Kamlu, which is about a baby camel who gets lost in the desert and finds new friends in the process, is currently being given shape in an animation studio in Chennai. Nihalani says the process has been a learning experience for him. “After my 2004 release Dev, I took a break, and worked on my animation project, because I knew it would take a lot of time. I do have a few actors in mind for the films, but everything is still in its primary stages,” he adds. Things, he says have changed considerably in the last three years. (Courtsy DNAIndia)

3D animated film Sultan:The Warrior

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Rajnikanth will be seen adorning the character of a charming Hero in Sultan which is going to be an out and out action flick set up in an ancient background with a gripping storyline. The duration of the second trailer released is 1 min 43 sec. It unveils the look of Rajnikanth in the movie, the set up of the period depicted and stylization used and shows the fight sequence between Sultan and his enemies.

Original Sketches:

Karthik G, Chief Marketing Office of Ocher Studios and Executive Producer of Sultan, said, "This is the first time in Tamil Cinema that somebody has launched a trailer and used it as the starting point of the movie, otherwise in Chennai it is always some pooja or havan. We have initiated our project with teasers and trailers and that's something novel here. We have put in a lot of planning to strategically schedule the release of trailers."

Om Shanti Om VFX in Dhoom Tana

Mumbai based 'Redchillies.vfx' has won Bollywood's popular Screen Awards for Best Visual Effects for the Shah Rukh Khan starrer mega blockbuster 'Om Shanti Om'. The other movies nominated in the same category were Chak De! India & Taare Zameen Par.
Delighted on winning the award, Redchillies.vfx COO Keitan Yadav shared with AnimationXpress.com, "Definitely we are excited and happy after winning this award. We are being nominated for the award from last three years but have won it for the first time. Also it was an honour to be nominated for two films (also Chakde India) in the same category. Explaining the VFX shots, he said, "The movie had a retro song - 'Dhoom tana' which consisted of high-end VFX work and also, there were a lot of complex sequences which made the work varied and unique," he added.

Stage 1

The team had to locate the original footage of the films they had short listed. The three song sequences appeared in Amrapali (1966, Sunil Dutt and Vyjayantimala), Saccha Jhutha (1970, Rajesh Khanna and Mumtaz) and Jay-Vijay (1977, Jeetendra and Jayashree T). Not always in the best condition, the original footage had to be scanned, carefully restored and cleaned up to the best possible quality on the computers.
Stage 2

Keeping in mind, the set of the films, the camera angles and the lighting, Deepika Padukone was shot in present dressed in similar costumes as the yesteryear actresses to further enhance that ‘70’s look. She pretended to dance with the actors by romancing an imaginary hero.
Stage 3

The original actresses, i.e. Vyjanthimala, Mumtaz and Jayashree T. were removed from the sequences. All this of course, was done with the help of the Red Chillies’ VFX (visual effects) team. Sequences where the camera was moving and the actors were in contact were specially chosen, so as to provide opportunity for Deepika to dance along with them as opposed to posing. Things to note were the eye contact between the actors, physical touch, lighting continuity, perspective matching, skin tones matching, color matching, etc.
Stage 4

Deepika’s footage was pasted in place of the actual actresses’ footage. The technical term for this is ‘compositing’. Thus, it seems that she has been locked in the same frame as legends, Sunil Dutt, Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra. The song truly was a treat to watch. And now some of our wonder and amazement has been satisfied. Keitan Yadav, COO of Red Chillies VFX asserted that the idea was to give a feel of the era and is glad that they seemed to have succeeded.
He adds that “there are about 200 additional shots in the film where VFX is used like the snow-flakes in the globe, SRK and Deepika turning real and dancing in the globe, the Mother India fire sequence, Shantipriya’s death sequence and the climax sequence.”
Image Courtesy: ‘The Making of Om Shanti Om’ published by Om Books International

Branding of 2010 Commonwealth Games

Idiom Design & Consulting, a design solutions provider, has developed the visual identity and branding for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. According to a press release, “The identity design truly embodies a global approach with the Indian spirit thus, providing inspiration for the future generation”. The logo for the Delhi Commonwealth Games was inspired by the Chakra, the national symbol of freedom, unity and power. “Spiralling upwards, the logo depicts the growth of India into a proud, vibrant nation, her billion people coming together to fulfil their true destinies.” Mr Viren Razdan, President, Idiom Design & Consulting, said, “The identity for the games is rooted and deep, on one hand, and vibrant and futuristic, on the other. Just like our nation!” (courtsy The Hindu Business Line)

The Internet Movie Database

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is a HUGE collection of movie information. They catalog every pertinent detail about a movie, from who was in it, to who made it, to trivia about it, to filming locations, and even where you can find reviews and fan sites on the web. The IMDb people present this information in a manner that is easy to search and access.
The IMDb started as a hobby project by an international group of movie fans(history of IMDb), essentially something by movie fans for movie fans.
IMDb creators say "We are some of our site's most hardcore users. Our managing director claims to have seen over seven thousand movies. Most of our people could write or win a movie trivia game show. One of our proposed slogans was "we just love movies." As big and intimidating as we may seem because of our millions of monthly visitors, we're just a bunch of hardcore movie fans who still can't get over the fact that we're getting paid to keep improving this tool we use so much for our own pleasure."

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Animated Ambitions

The renewed interest in comic books — the sector had been dormant for some years, with the advent of cable television and 24x7 cartoon channels — started a couple of years ago. Analysts point to the growing popularity of gaming and graphic novels among older teens and young adults helping the trend spread to younger consumer groups as well. Then, in 2006, a group of non-resident Indians, in partnership with maverick entrepreneur Richard Branson, author and spiritual guru Deepak Chopra and film maker Shekhar Kapur, launched Virgin Comics to not only address the comic book market, but also tap into the Indian creative pool for the global market. While the arrival of new competition propelled the older players to rexamine their growth strategy, what finally moved them into higher gear was a change in management at both publications this year. Last month, India Book House sold Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle for an unconfirmed Rs 10 crore to ACK Media, a newly formed entertainment and education company for pre-teens and teenagers, while Geodesic Information Systems paid a similar sum for Chandamama in March. Why is everyone treating comics as such serious business? The revival is heavily influenced by the huge market potential — 300 million Indians in the 6- to 17-year age group. Granted, they’re not all likely to read comics — the 300-million figure covers all income groups and education levels — but the publishers aren’t complaining. Chandamama India CEO L Subramanyan claims that sales of the magazine (newsstand price: Rs 15) have increased from 160,000 a month to 360,000 over the past year, while ACK Media reports monthly sales of 140,000 for Tinkle (Rs 40 per issue). Virgin refuses to divulge sales numbers. Also, according to estimates by PricewaterhouseCoopers global media and entertainment outlook from 2006-10, while magazine publishing revenues in India (comics come under this category) is expected to grow at a CAGRof 13.3 per cent, revenues from home videos (CAGR 41.5 per cent), TV networks (11.2 per cent) and filmed entertainment (11.9 per cent) are also expected to deliver healthy growth rates. The global opportunity is equally big, points out Sharad Devarajan, co-founder, CEO and publisher of Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation. The market for comics and related products like merchandise and films is estimated at $40 billion (roughly Rs 160,000 crore). Japan, with its Manga books, makes up 30 per cent of the market, followed by the US and Europe. In stark contrast, India accounts for under 1 per cent. The players are determined to change that. Which is why they are planning to take comics beyond the traditional book format to not just films and television serials, but also online games, social networking sites for children and so on. ACK Media CEO and co-founder Samir Patil agrees there is a huge global audience — primarily NRIs — waiting to lap up diverse and differentiated Indian content. It plans to reach them through online services like the ACK Shop, which also sells products made by competitors such as Karadi Tales, Tulika Books and so on. Meanwhile, it is building an online base with a children-oriented website, tinkleonline: the “social networking” site allows children to earn points and exchange them for games, books and toys. Needless to say, the site also allows online shopping of ACK products. Chandamama, too, has turned to new media. Apart from uploading its stories on the Internet, it has also tied up with satellite radio service provider Worldspace to bring the Indian story telling tradition live through radio. In a couple of weeks, the company will also announce its tie-up with a national FM radio station for a weekend story-telling slot. Television and film are also part of the new focus. Chandamama has already created a story cell that will produce scripts for animation films and programmes, while ACK is exploring tie-ups with production houses that will replicate its comic storyboards on film. At present, neither ACK nor Geodesic are looking at creating new characters — they just don’t see the need. Amar Chitra Katha, for instance, published more than 400 titles over the past 40 years, while Tinkle’s characters, too, enjoy high recall levels. “It will take years for consumers to become acquainted with new characters,” points out Patil. Geodesic, too, plans to leverage its existing strengths — Chandamama reportedly has a story bank that will last 15 years. That’s not Virgin’s strategy, though. In fact, the huge dearth of new original characters is the raison d’etre for the organisation — Mickey Mouse was created in the 1920s, Batman a decade later and Spiderman in the 1960s. They still remain the most popular animation characters. The only recent addition is Pokémon, and even that is over 10 years old. “We decided to focus on India as not an outsourcing destination but as the source for new comic characters,” says Devarajan. In line with that decision, Virgin Comics are made in India, for a global audience. The company already has a 200-executive-strong studio in Bangalore and plans to set up two more across the country next year. In fact, when it comes to the beyond-books strategy, Virgin is far ahead of the other two players. In a move that will facilitate transit of its comics into Hollywood films, the company has started a Director’s Cut Comic Line series where it has associated with Hollywood directors. In this series, Hollywood directors such as Guy Ritchie, John Woo, Terry Gilliam, Shekhar Kapur, Jonathan Mostow, Ed Burns, and Nicolas Cage associate themselves with the creation of a comic title. For instance, Guy Ritchie’s Gamekeeper, which was released through Virgin Comics, will be adapted into a film co-produced by Warner Bros. Virgin has also tied up with two Indian production houses — UTV Motion Pictures and Studio 18 — to create Indian superheroes and horror films, respectively. The company has also entered into a partnership with Sony to develop online games on its Ramayan 3392 AD title. For the television medium, it has a partnership with Sci-Fi channel. The power of content from India is also a top draw. Gotham Chopra, chief creative officer, Virgin Comics, claims that Virgin’s titles like Virulents, The Sadhu, Ramayan 3392 AD and Devi, all part of the Shakti series, have fared as well as Director’s Cut books. “India is the biggest celebrity because of its mystery and exoticism,” he says. (courtsy:Business Standard)

Animation in music album Shaam Tanha

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The third video of music band Agnee's self-titled debut album is making waves not only for some great music but also for the extensive use of animation in it. 2mins 04 seconds of classical animation has been incorporated in the video of 4 mins 33 seconds which intersperses seamlessly with the live footage featuring the group. A team of 30 people has worked on the animation and the job was completed in three months. It has been developed using avid, premiere, 3D max and combustion. The creative part in the animation has been done by final year students of various animation and design institutes of Pune. These youngsters were experts in cell animation. "Basically it's not about what technology we used to create content, but it's about the CONTENT itself. We wanted to give it a very retro India animated feel. The characters were finalized after a million thoughts and discussions!" stated Alok.
Added Mohan, "We had not seen any of their previous work. But they took a lot of pains on the storyboard and showed it to us with all important scenes and characters. The physical drawings looked too good as they had done great hard work. They have been successful in maintaining a balance between the band's scenes and the animated story. We feel this is a path breaking venture and we are very happy with it."

Cadbury gorilla is voted favourite TV ad for 2007

Cadbury’s have just launched a £6.2m campaign for Dairy Milk featuring a gorilla playing the drum solo of Phil Collins’ track ‘In the Air Tonight’. The ad was written and directed by Sony Bravia ‘balls’ creative director Juan Cabral of Fallon London. Rather than wet our appeite for gorgeous tasting chocolate, the ad simply aims to entertain.Laurence Green, planning director of Fallon, “Cadbury traditionally did well-built ads for the interruption age when consumers had an implicit media deal with advertisers. In exchange for free TV they would allow us to interrupt their programmes with commercials,” says Green. “The nation has a massive soft spot for CDM and it is deeply embedded in the national psyche. For a brand that is so well known, it’s arguable whether the old style interruption advertising model is the best model for the future. So we are trying to engage more genuinely with our audience.”
The website TellyAds.com named the top 20 favourite adverts based on the number of times each clip was viewed online. Its founder, Jon Cousins, said: "There are those who say TV advertising has had its day, but a lot of people who visit our site tell us they think the ads are often better than the programmes. It's interesting to see that there have been around 4,000 new TV adverts produced this year alone. Created by the award-winning Fallon agency in London, the commercial has stimulated great interest, partly because it does not feature the product until the very end. (Guardian)

Shekhar Kapur making Animation movie on a Cockroach

"I am making an animation film on a cockroach, called 'Very Aesthetic Cockroach'. It is the story of a cunning yet endearing cockroach, named Vicky. He has friends all over the world – in Greece, Spain, Russia, etc. " said Shekhar Kapur in a quiet excited way.
He has found out that cockroaches can survive the holocaust, and is quite kicked about it. Then he wonders why humans rule the Earth, when it rightfully belongs to the cockroaches. He has somehow managed to convince AR Rahman to be on board for this project. Titled Suitable Cockroach, the film is being worked upon by animation studio, Prana. Kapur, who is known for his story telling, is scripting the film. The story of Suitable Cockroach revolves around the most hated Asian creature - the cockroach. What's more, Kapur plans release the movie on the internet first, after which the theatrical release will follow.Speaking to Businessofcinema.com, Kapur says, “I never go by what’s being done. The new media is a fascinating medium and I would love to experiment my film on the net. I intend to release it on YouTube.com first.” About the expected returns, he adds, “Downloads are the most expected returns for a film being out on net first. I will be setting a new trend.” Kapur has been approached by some animation studios to ink film deals. He informs, “I am in talks with an animation studio called Animal Logic based in Sydney. It will be a one film deal.” This apart, he is also planning to upload all his work in relation to Paani on the net in terms of designs, pictures and blogs. When queried on the reason behind this, he says, “I want my audience to get linked with the movie, so that when they watch the film they feel that they are a part of the cast and crew. It is wonderful to communicate, I am the producer-I can do it.”

Indian advertising scaled a new high

Indian advertising has just scaled a new high. India has moved up six notches from 21 to 15 in the list countries with the highest advertising awards, according to the Gunn Report of 2007. India has moved ahead of China, New Zealand, Mexico and South Africa, among others, to notch up a total of 39 points for award winning campaigns in Print, TV and Interactive. In addition to this, HappyDent Palace, one of the most awarded commercials from this year, made it to the top 10 most awarded commercials in 2007.
Besides HappyDent, only one other Indian ad made it to the most awarded list. Ogilvy & Mather’s ad for Indian Association for Adoption, which was the 12th most awarded print campaign of 2007. The most awarded TV ad was Sony Bravia’s Paint ad, created by Fallon, while the print honours went to Clima Bicycle Locks, created by Leo Burnett Bangkok. As a result of creating two highly awarded ads, both McCann Erickson and O&M have made it to the list of most awarded agencies globally. McCann stood joint 22nd while O&M stood joint 45th. This year, the Gunn Report has also included interactive as a category to evaluate creative performance for agencies, and a few Asian countries haven’t had enough to show in this category. Had India been evaluated on Print and TV scores alone it would have been ranked 13th. The most awarded agency for 2007 went to TBWA/Chiat/Day (New York) which was ranked a lowly 43 last year while BBDO retained the most awarded agency network for 2007, making it five wins out of nine Gunn Reports.
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The Golden Cursor Animation Award

As the Indian animation revolution gathers momentum and readies to conquer the world, CNBC-TV18, India's leading business medium along with Arena Animation have instituted The Golden Cursor Excellence in Animation Awards powered by Animation Xpress.Com which is the World's No 1. source for News, Information and connectivity with Indian Animation, VFX & Gaming. These awards will present to the world, the true heroes of the Indian Animation industry. The entire industry will participate in this pioneering initiative. An eminent jury panel will then evaluate the nominations. The winners of these prestigious awards will then be felicitated in a gala ceremony later in the year.
The awards are a benchmark for excellence in animation in India and will empower the industry to its next level of growth. You are the driving force and a hero of the Indian animation revolution. It is now your time to shine and present to the world your creative genius.
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Gaming industry's challenges in India

While gaming as an industry is growing in India, distribution, pricing and perception are three key challenges preventing rapid growth.India's broadband penetration and government tariffs on gaming consoles are stifling growth, said India's leading gaming companies, in a panel discussion at Nasscom Animation and Gaming India 2007. Microsoft country manager entertainment and services division Mohit Anand said that the company made several observations of the Indian gaming market. "We've learnt that the Indian gamer wants the latest and the best content at the same time when it releases internationally. Sales of Halo 3 in India have exceeded about 10,000 units already and considering the current size of the market, this is very encouraging."However, distributing content is a major drawback. It is still a logistic challenge to have it on retail shelves on the day of its international release," he pointed out.Microsoft launched its Xbox 360 last year in India and in November will bring the Xbox 360 Live. "We've realised that this is a very complex business and having an online plan in the gaming experience can be a killer app," he asserted. Zapak Digital Entertainment COO Rohit Sharma said that while casual online gaming was picking up in India, there is need for segmentation. "There is a need to check how content should be segmented. You must include social networking features and promote community sites within gaming portals to ensure that gamers are loyal to your portal," he said. Indiagames founder and director Vishal Gondal highlighted the need for low-cost revenue model for starters, to receive mass adoption. "What we did, was to get the lowest common denominator to sample the aggregation of the best content on mobile, for a small amount. We can then track the kind of handset infrastructure and graphic card the consumer uses and deliver the same information to technology companies, thus initiating new relationships with them. This creates a possibility of upscaling revenue models." Contests2Win founder and chairman Alok Kejriwal pointed out that it was important to offer the consumer an option to make money while playing the game as well. "So you have a gamer who's paid an amount to race this really cool car, collect stickers and be the king of the game. Now you've to offer a value proposition to him, where he can, say auction his car to another gamer in exchange for a handsome price."

Indyarocks announces online short film festival, to include animation

Mobile and online social networking portal Indyarocks.com has announced an online short film festival which amongst other categories, would include an animation and mobile content category as well.
The festival will commence on 18 October 2007 and will conclude on 15 December 2007. Nikhil Acharya, a well known and upcoming short film maker, will be the festival director.
The award categories are divided into two sections, namely, The Viewers choice Awards and The Jury Awards. "In order to to nominate a particular film for the viewer‘s Choice Awards, those interested can log onto Indyarocks and vote for the films that have been uploaded. following the ballot system, the movie which garners the highest number of votes would be crowned as the winner," shared Manyam. "While on the other hand for the Jury Awards, the entries would be judged by the jury members, whose names are yet to be announced," added Manyam.
Dr. Vishnu, Head of Strategy, Indyarocks, said "There is a huge amount of digital content created in the offline world and it usually never gets the kind of audience it deserves. This film festival will give an opportunity to everyone to display their creativity not only to their family and friends but to a whole new audience across the world."
Founded in June ‘07 by Kalyan Manyam and Dr. Vishnu, Indyarocks is a product of PhoneLinx Communications, a new age Mobile Lifestyle solutions company based out of San Jose, California and Hyderabad.
Festival Rules
- The Film should be 1-10 minutes in duration.
- The Film can be shot on any format, including mobile phones.
- You can submit more than one short film for the IFEST.
- The Film must be uploaded on Indyarocks or sent on DVD by November 18th, 07 to the address below.
Nikhil Acharya, IFEST Director
186, Road no: 8,
Dhanalaksmi Colony, Mahendra Hills,
Secunderabad-500026, INDIA.
nikhil@indyarocks.com
* Please note, before sending your creation by DVD you must create an Indyarocks account and mention the login ID on your DVD.
- If the film is not in English, it MUST have English subtitles.
- All copyrights must be owned by the Producer. Indyarocks is not liable for any copyright violations.
- The Film must not contain any obscene language, hate content and nudity.

'Yahoo.co.in is the Best online gaming portal‘ - Web 18

Leading portal Yahoo.co.in has won the Web 18 - Genius of the Web Award in the category of best e-commerce online gaming portal. Yahoo won this award in competition with other nominees including Indiatimes.com, funtoosh.com, hungama.com and zapak.com.
‘Geniuses of the Web‘ Awards is a series of awards in multiple categories that recognizes outstanding industry achievements by companies that have done commendable work in the online space.
Elated on being adjudged the best e-commerce online gaming portal, Manish Dalal, Director of Yahoo India shared with AnimationXpress.com, "Yahoo has always striven to provide the best games to its customers. The online gaming space is a niche market and is growing rapidly and users are increasing manifold."
Surya Mantha, CEO of Web 18, informed, "As the Indian Internet community is growing, the online gaming space in India is nurturing at a rapid speed. Web18 and Genius of the Web Awards are committed to recognizing the new and pioneering efforts; it is our privilege to honor all these champs in the online space."
Under the Genius of the Web Awards, several other brands emerged victorious in their respective fields. Jetairways.com, Shaadi.com and Orkut.com were announced the winners of Best Airline site, Best Matrimonial portal and Best Social Networking website, respectively.
The announcement brought mixed reactions from the audience present for the award function, those who won cheered in pleasure and those who couldn‘t make it to the top, emoted the promise to come back to win the title next year!!