If it's animation, it must be India!

India's animation sector is witnessing a major boom. Overseas entertainment giants like Walt Disney, Imax and Sony are increasingly outsourcing cartoon characters and special effects to India. Other companies are outsourcing animation from India for commercials and computer games.

So what makes India a hub for animation? Why is the sector experiencing exponential growth? In this special series, we take a look at what makes India shine in the world of animation.

A full-fledged feature film called Tommy and Oscar is in the final stages of production at the Toonz Animation Studio, Technopark, Kerala. A team of artists and technicians is working frenetically to complete the film for the Italian producer Rainbow Productions.

Applied Gravity, a New Zealand-based company, has outsourced nearly 90 per cent of it animation work to Nipuna Services, the business process outsourcing subsidiary of Satyam Computer Servcies. An animatronics dog for Animal Planet (Discovery channel) for a popular episode called K9 to11 and animatronics models for New Zealand theme parks were some of the best-known creations of Applied Gravity in India.

The Walt Disney Company has outsourced some of its major animation projects to various studios across India. Cartoon Network is buying animation films made in India. MTV has added India to its outsourcing hub along with the Philippines and South Korea.A new outsourcing fever has gripped India.

Global entertainment majors like Walt Disney, Imax, Warner Brothers and Sony are signing up huge contracts with Indian animation companies. And cities in India like Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Trivandrum have emerged as the country's major animation hubs.
India has a vast base of English speaking workforce: Animation, which requires familiarity with the English language, benefits when the work is outsourced to India. A number of animation companies in the country are also creating skilled manpower for the animation market through various training programmes.

Presence of good studios: India has the second largest entertainment industry in the world, after Hollywood. Animation studios in the country provide a large supply of low-cost, high-quality software engineers. A number of Indian animation companies have set up hi-tech studios (equipped with state-of-the-art hardware and software) to execute overseas projects.

Low cost of animation services: The main reason why foreign entertainment firms are flocking to India is the cost advantage the country offers. For instance, in the US, animators can cost about $125 an hour; in India, they cost $25 an hour. Toonz Animation offers animation at 25 per cent to 40 per cent lower rates than other Asian studios and much lower than those of American studios.

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