Devina Joshi
Media

<FONT COLOR="#FF0033"><B>FICCI Frames 2007:</B></FONT>Should Indian animation go beyond Rama and Krishna?

At the second day of FICCI Frames 2007, animation veterans from India and abroad discussed what it would take for Indian animation to make a global mark and what was the perfect recipe for success when it came to developing content in animation

Although it has been around for years, animation still has quite a way to go in India. While it can be argued that animated movies such as ‘Hanuman’ have succeeded beyond the Indian border as well, these examples are perhaps few and far between, when compared to the triumphs of international animation.

<FONT COLOR="#FF0033"><B>FICCI Frames 2007:</B></FONT>Should Indian animation go beyond Rama and Krishna?
'Hanuman', the Indian box office success that was a hit even internationally
At FICCI Frames 2007, veterans from the area of animation spoke on what it takes to cook up the perfect animation recipe to cater to all types of palates. “That’s an important point, catering to all sorts of audiences,” said Jean Thoren, owner and CEO, ‘Animation Magazine’, USA. In her view, one of the biggest mistakes animators and broadcasters make is to assume that animation is consumed only by kids. “My husband once told me that some day, adults will be watching animation, and the concept will go beyond Saturday morning cartoons for kids,” said Thoren. “Today, that is already happening around the world.”

She referred to contemporary adaptations of comic books, which can be tailored to suit teenagers or adults. “A storyline with a message, well crafted, can appeal across audience segments,” she asserted.

It was also said that to be successful, animation needed to look beyond technology; real animation is as much a creative craft as any other, and required detailed characterisation and relevant storylines. However, this should not be confused with heavy duty drama. “Animation started off with humour, and to me, it ends on humour,” said Thoren. “So, content providers should refrain from moral sagas or heavy melodrama, and keep the content as light and enjoyable as possible.”

Providing the Indian context on characterisation and storylines was Ketan Mehta, director, Maya Movies. “Being a filmmaker, I wanted to delve into sci-fi movies in the late 1990s,” he began. However, the necessary technology wasn’t available in India back then, so he decided to set up his own animation studio (Maya).

There were many lessons in store for Mehta. “The first mistake we made was to treat animated content the same as Bollywood films,” he said. Like Hindi films, content was first released in India with the complacent hope that it would pick up globally in its own time. That didn’t happen. “Animation, by its very nature, is a global business, so one can’t look at things with a microscopic view,” he explained.

Mehta went on to say that, as a production house, Maya did all the expected things, including borrowing from India’s rich mythological and cultural heritage. The production house produced the usual animated versions of ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharata’, which, according to Mehta, was a perfect recipe for failure. This can be attributed to an insufficient talent pool and few companies that were willing to take animation to other markets. “Today, this has been rectified and Indian animation is at a place from where it can be globalised with some effort,” Mehta said.

However, his story raised an important question: Does India have only animated mythological characters to offer to the world? And, if so, why are they not as appreciated abroad as we expect them to be?

“Perhaps that’s because children and teenagers might not like to see an animated Krishna preaching moral values; animation by its very nature should be light-hearted,” Thoren offered, reiterating her earlier point. “Perhaps a contemporary character that has a universal element of morality to it will be more of a success.”

Indian animators should also do an analysis of what their global audiences want. Globally, the animated character, Pokemon, was a huge success solely because it was tailormade for each market. Another animation success is the US-bred Fido Dido (for the drink 7Up), which has the unique quality of standing for different things to different people.

Thoren concluded the talk by revealing that, in Europe, there was an annual festival called the Cartoon Forum where professionals from the field of animation met and interacted with potential business partners. “Maybe something like that at an Asian level will be of benefit,” she said.

© 2007 agencyfaqs!

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