'Indian animation industry needs more content development'

Mumbai, March 25 (IANS) Indian animation industry has huge business potential and the industry is beginning to scale new heights, however, content development is the need of the hour in order to sustain the growth, said experts here.

"Indian animation industry is definitely booming and it has a very bright future ahead. However, it needs to mature up its content and reach out to a wider audience," Jean Thoren, president and CEO of Animation Magazine, US, said while addressing a session - Developing Animation Content: lessons learnt from around the world - at the Ficci-Frames 2008 Tuesday here.

"There's a huge future for animation in India. However, while visually we are achieving perfection we need to focus more on developing the content. We need to consider the responsibility of the characters we are portraying," said Joanna Ferrone, president and founder of the New York-based Honest Entertainment.

"While drawing the characters, one has to realise that these cannot be perfect and that the world is not an even playing field. It's important to draw what's within you," Ferrone added.

Stressed Siddhartha Jain of iRock Media Pvt. Ltd: "Indian animation industry needs to look beyond the mythological figures as they are neither catching up with the children and nor, definitely, with the teens or adults."

"The industry needs to push creativity both in writing and also in visual. The talent pool needs to be broadened and the current trends need to be understood," he said.

Agreed Nandish Domlur, CEO, Paprikaas: " The Indian animation industry is definitely going places but there are challenges. There has to be more quality content catering to a global audience."

The entertainment portion of the animation, gaming and VFX industry grew by 24 percent over the previous year and is estimated at Rs.13 billion in 2007, up from Rs.10.5 billion in 2006, according to a report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Ficci) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).

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