The potential of the Indian Animation and Gaming Industry

Animation, simply put ‘the fine art of taking a pencil for a walk’, has today reached stupendous dimensions in its maturity and emerged as a niche industry clocking revenues of USD 80 Billion in FY 2007-08. The potential of the Indian Animation and Gaming industry is touching revenues of USD 550 Million in Animation and USD 161 Million in gaming in FY 2007-08, at a time when the world is looking towards Asia as an upcoming provider for this segment.
Few can argue against India’s potential as an Animation and Gaming hub, especially against today’s backdrop of a fast developing sector, the penetration and potential for this segment - both for cinema and television in India is very encouraging. It promises new developments in gaming and new surprises with screening in 3D and making of Hollywood VFX blockbusters.
With an objective of creating a platform to discuss, debate and preempt industry trends, NASSCOM is pleased to announce the 6th edition of its ‘Animation & Gaming India 2008’ from November 6-7, 2008 at the Hyderabad International Convention Center, Hyderabad. Over the years this event has become a premier event for this emerging sector in India, attracting the industry leaders, analysts, observers and media.
This is the opportunity for an organization to participate in one of the biggest animation events, spread over two days. Participants get a chance to interact with luminaries from the industry, listen to experts debate on topical issues and trends, witness interesting case studies and see the best of animation and gaming previews, in addition to introductions to the latest animation and gaming technologies, most of the time before it is out in the market.
The target audience for this event includes animators, producers, program directors, broadcasters, production units involved in media & entertainment, art & design schools, IT companies, investors, VC’s, government officials from Films Division/ Information and Broadcasting Departments, media etc. It will provide an ideal platform for Indian animation, gaming, electronic media, mobile and console players to participate at the event and demonstrate their competencies, strengths and capabilities.

Anil Ambani group, Spielberg to set up $1.5 billion studio

India's Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and celebrated filmmaker Steven Spielberg are setting up a new studio in Los Angeles under a $1.5-billion project that will make films for global audiences, sources familiar with the negotiations said Saturday. The mega deal - which will help Spielberg break away from DreamWorks, now owned by Viacom's Paramount Pictures - will be funded by a mix of equity and debt, and also involve leading investment banker JP Morgan Chase, the sources added. As a combination, Spielberg and Snider are regarded as the most successful filmmaking duo in history. DreamWorks was formed with much fanfare in 1994. But after an uneven run, it was sold to Viacom'a Paramount in 2006 for $1.6 billion. Since then, Spielberg and his team were eager to part ways with Paramount. According to sources, the Anil Ambani group and Spielberg decided to join hands both for the financial stability of their new venture and convergence of their ideas for the world of media and entertainment. Ambani's Reliance Big Entertainment had announced in Cannes in May that it would make a major foray into Hollywood and develop projects in partnership with some best-known actors like Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey and George Clooney. This marked the biggest foray of an Indian entity in Hollywood's motion picture industry. Thirty films are likely to emanate from Reliance's co-financing and 10 will go into production soon, company officials had said. The entertainment business of the Anil Ambani group has interests in movies, FM radio, music, sports, gaming, Internet and mobile portals, direct-to-home TV, Internet TV and Mobile TV. The group, which also has a major presence in mobile telecom, financial services and energy sectors, had acquired in 2005 Adlabs Films Ltd, one of India's the largest entertainment companies with interests in film processing, production, exhibition and digital cinema. The group recently acquired 250 screens in US and 51 screens in Malaysia. Paramount, meanwhile, said it will not delay matters for Spielberg and his team, including DreamWorks partner David Geffen and chief executive Snider, in forging the pact with the Indian group.

Digital Skin Grafting VFX

To begin with, Indian artists did an in-depth study of the European complexion. We found that white skin reflects more light and has less shadow when compared to dark skin and is translucent in some areas. Therefore a simple color correction of the hero's skin would not achieve the desired effect. For the shoot a London based young white lady with a fresh complexion and flushed cheeks was chosen and with the help of Cinematographer Mr. K.V.Anand every single shot of the hero was repeated with her because lighting conditions change in every shot. After the final edit all the 630 hero shots and 630 girl shots were scanned in 4K resolution. Each of the 9000 scanned frames where Rotoscoped to separate the body parts (face, hands, legs etc.). The white lady's skin was mapped onto the Super Star's image using Eyeon "Digital Fusion" software. Thus the Super Star got his glowing white complexion. The technique behind Super Star Rajini's European complexion in the film. A White lady's skin was mapped onto the Super Star's image using Eyeon “Digital Fusion” software.

VFX of 'Kahani Hamaray Mahabharat Ki'

Mumbai-based Color Cubes which recently won the Global India TV Honor award for its cutting edge VFX works in Aahat Season 3, is now doing the VFX for Balaji Productions' Kahani Hamaray Mahabharat Ki, being aired on 9X. Some of the decisive scenes done by Color Cubes include the baby Krishna and Sheshnag scene, creation of a 3D wolf character, the goddess Ganga and water splash scene, all of which have already gone on air. For creation of all these key shots, the VFX Company has done an extensive work on character modeling, water simulation, particle simulation, caustics, amongst other CG and VFX techniques. Said Suraj Rao, Creative Head of Kahani Hamaray Mahabharat Ki, "We are getting a good response from the audiences all around. Now the TV format is changing, and lot of VFX is involved in the serials going on air these days. We have tried to use high-quality VFX for the scenes in the serial and have achieved to reach quality level of CG work for the small screen. The VFX work done by Color Cubes is really appreciable." Explaining the baby Krishna and Seshnag scene, Himanshu said, "For this particular shot we had to put lot of effort creating the CG naag (snake) and rain and to composite it with live artist and water, along with the creation of water simulation." "We also had to work on the rain and water interaction with the artist because we made CG rain and water splashes. The CG water splashes have been added digitally using particle effect which needed an extensive research to give the desired look that the director asked for." For the goddess Ganga and water splash scene, Color Cubes composited CG water with real water and created CG water splash, waves and tornado which later converts in the form of goddess Ganga. Explaining one of the critical shots from the series, Himanshu explained, "One of the most complicated shots was creating a CG environment and a CG 3D wolf. Earlier we tried shooting a dog and transforming him into a wolf, but we couldn't do it because of the dogs' walking style and his tongue, which is always out of the dogs' mouth. Later we created a CG wolf and environment which we composited with the artist, shot in the chroma background." Few of the other sequences which took a lot of effort included camera motion shots, matte cutting, character modeling, complex compositing shots and rope removal, to name a few.

Media firm to animate story on Taj Mahal

For the first time in India, Chandigarh-based Compact Disc India Ltd (CDIL), an integrated media and entertainment company, will animate a true love story titled Eternal Love in English which will revolve around the Taj Mahal. The company has secured an animation outsourcing contract worth $15.70 million from a Los Angeles-based firm through its arm Mediaone Ventures Ltd for the film which is slated to be released in December 2009. Internationally acclaimed celebrities will be involved in this ambitious film project. The company acquired a Russian mobile gaming company — Mobsoft — for $7 million in April this year and very soon the firm will float a new company in Chandigarh. Recently, Department of Information and Technology, Madhya Pradesh, allotted five acres of industrial land to the company for setting up an animation studio at the IT Park in Bhopal. The estimated investment by the studio is Rs 57.20 crore. It has also entered into an agreement with the Rajasthan State Industrial Corporation Ltd for setting up a studio at Kath Kalwar in Jaipur. The agreement was signed at the recently-conducted Resurgent Rajasthan — Partnership Summit at Jaipur, organised by the Rajasthan government in collaboration with FICCI. The Company is hopeful of achieving a sales turnover of over Rs 103 crore this fiscal year.

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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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)

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."

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.

'Indian Splendor' to become annual Indian event in US

Encouraged by the response received in the United States, the organizers of the recently concluded event 'India Splendor' have decided to turn this into an annual fete.The next edition of 'India Splendor' is scheduled to be held from 15 to 17 August 2008 in Los Angeles, according to MCorp Global President and India Splendor director Bhuvan Lall. India Splendor was celebrated across six days from 10 to 15 August on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of India’s Independence and was attended by over 5000 people. It was designed to present the best of India’s arts, business, culture and spirituality.Said Lall, “We have been overwhelmed and humbled by the tremendous response by the citizens of Southern California to the first 'India Splendor' event this year and have decided to have a sequel next year.”Notable Indians and non-resident Indian participated in the extravaganza which included some of the country’s most prominent filmmakers, artists, performers, scholars, business moguls, politicians, spiritual leaders and others.

Visit the website to know more about the great event.

Rs 40 Million ‘Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang' all set to light up the Silver Screen in December'07

Produced at a cost of Rs 40 Million ‘Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang‘, the first feature produced by Elecom Fiesta Entertainment, is all set to light up the Silver Screen this December.Elecom Fiesta Entertainment is a joint initiative between Kolkata based Elecom Toon and Mumbai based Fiesta Entertainment, where both companies have jointly set up a corpus for producing animated features.If the brochure and other publicity material of the venture‘s first feature are anything to go by, the 80 minute long 2D animated feature looks like a winner.The 80 minutes long film has drawn inspiration for its title from the 1964 children’s book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming (which later inspired the 1968 film by the same name). The 2D feature’s story is neither a copy nor an inspired version of it.Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang revolves around two Kingdoms of Ants who are at loggerheads with each other. However, it is not a battle story altogether. There is a romantic twist too, as the Prince and Princess of warring Kingdoms fall in love. The film in fact works on the premise that ‘War Never Pays’. It endeavors to drive home the point that with unity and peace are the driving factor’s for a nation’s health.Story, script, animation direction, pre production and production are being done in house at Elecom Toon and Fiesta Entertainment is working on all aspects of post production including sound design. The feature will be released in six Indian languages with the Bengali and Hindi versions to hit screens first.Fiesta Entertainment Director N D Nagpal said, "Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang is the first movie from the bouquet of Elecom and Fiesta joint venture. We have invested a lump sum of Rs 40 Million and an additional Rs 10 Million is expected as investment in our marketing plans and promotion of the movie.""We plan to make one animated movie each year for the next three years. Soon we will be announcing other animated feature which will be based on a famous Indian novel. We also have merchandising plans as part of which we will introduce books, toys, stationery, contests and other promotional activities"On being asked about the production schedule, R D Malik, CEO of Elecom Toon shared, "The production work began in April this year and close to 100 artists are working round the clock. The movie is almost complete and we are planning release it in theatres with four hundred prints‘Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang also features the voices of well known Indian actors like Ashish Vidyarthi, Mahesh Manjrekar, Asrani and Anjan Srivastva.Nida Fazli‘s awe inspiring lyrics in the film find voices of renowned singers including Shaan, Shreya Ghosal, Kunal Ganjawala, Sudesh Bhosle and Rashid Khan

2D Animated Advertisement

Watch "Thakur Ka Intequam" at http://www.thakurkainteqam.com/
A 2D animation created by Webchutney for orbit white chewing gum advertisement.

A one-stop online movie tickets booking portal for India

Everyone wants to watch movies, but no one wants to queue up outside multiplexes for tickets. That, simply put, is why online booking of tickets has been seen as a viable e-model for cinema houses. Now, there’s a new player – http://www.bookmyshow.com/ – that has unveiled a one-stop-shop for online purchase of movie tickets across the country.
The website is promoted by BigTree Entertainment, which recently received funding from the TV18 Group. BigTree is not new to the business; over the past five years, they have been offering ticketing and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solutions to major multiplexes such as the PVR chain. Buoyed by the fact that BigTree Entertainment helps sell around 2 million tickets annually, it’s not surprising that they have now decided to come up with their own online ticketing facility.
Bookmyshow.com offers consumers the ability to book movie, play and concert tickets in real time, either through the site or through their call centre. It has tied up with major multiplexes such as PVR, Adlabs, Fun Cinemas, Inox, DT cinemas, Prasadz, Wave, M2K cinemas and 24Karat.
Initially, Bookmyshow.com’s booking services will be available across 27 cities from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Chandigarh and Lucknow to smaller cities such as Agra, Aurangabad, Indore, Latur and Panipat. According to Ashish Hemrajani, CEO, BigTree Entertainment, Bookmyshow will later expand to cover ticketing facilities for venues all over India. There is a strong focus on boosting the number of call centres across India; right now, only 11 cities have call centre facilities.
What about the new site posing competition to the online ticket booking systems (powered by BigTree) owned by multiplexes? Hemrajani feels there will be no clash and that his site will only augment the total number of tickets sold.
When a ticket is booked through the site, an SMS is sent or a voucher is mailed as a booking receipt. The voucher needs to be printed out and taken to the venue to get the ‘real’ tickets). To book through a call centre, a consumer needs to call on a number (39895050) and order a ticket, which will be delivered at his doorstep.
A consumer has to pay a convenience fee of Rs 10-15 per ticket, whether booked through the call centre or online. “Right now, Bookmyshow.com is not offering SMS-based booking, but will launch SMS booking and Pay by Mobile services soon,” says Hemrajani. Apart from booking the tickets, a person can choose his seats, too.
The major revenue stream is going to be the convenience fees charged for booking tickets, which is Rs 10-15 per ticket. Right now, there are no ads on the site and Hemrajani is not convinced about offering space to advertisers because he thinks it will create transactional hassles for customers.

Watch the New Add of Radio City in flash animation

Be it movies, casting, daily soaps, or even marketing. Animation has always been a prolific medium of communication and of late, it‘s now being used in every possible aspect of marketing and branding.

Recently music major Radio City 91.1 FM has rolled out with its new marketing campaign ‘Fun ki Nayi Bhasha‘ where animation has been used intensively.

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As part of the campaign, Radio City has taken idioms, added a fun twist to them and created a fun experience by using flash animation in viral ads and interpreting them literally to demonstrate a whole new refreshing take on life. "The idea behind the campaign is to get our audience to participate and add to the new language of fun on Radio City" said Rana Barua, National Marketing Head of Radio City.

Barua shared, "Animation is a very pertinent tool that we have decided to use to take our ‘Fun ki Nayi Bhasha‘ across to our listeners. I believe that animation should and can be used effectively to express thoughts and key messages that one would like to communicate."

The Bansuri webisode (viral) of duration 80 seconds has been conceived by the creative team at Meridian. As the future plans of Radio City, there are other webisodes which are in pipeline and will soon be out on the net.

On being asked about the response of the campaign, Barua said, "We are quite thrilled on the response we have received so far. It‘s really been very positive, be it from our listeners or other players across industries."

"Combined with Radio City‘s previous pioneering initiatives, the viral campaign will further enhance and amplify the communication listeners across the length and breadth of the country. Through the viral campaign listeners will be able to view and experience a sense of unshackled spontaneity and associate that with the brand Radio City" concluded Rana.

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