Aslan the lion, Tomnus the faun, the veryreal Mr Beaver and many, many more— over 50 Indian artists spent a good

part of 18 months completing the specialeffects for the Hollywood fantasy Chroniclesof Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and TheWardrobe at a studio in Mumbai.

From mere low-cost content providers toHollywood studios and global film producers,the $300 million animation industry has nowmoved up the value chain with an entry intothe lucrative business of co-production.

Walt Disney, Imax, Sony, Warner Bros, Para-mount, 20th Century Fox, NBC, Universal, Mat-tel, Lionsgate and Mike Yong Productions arejust a handful of big names using the Indian tal-ent pool not just to execute animation softwarebut also to share copyrights and profits.

Even US First Lady Laura Bush agreed to bepart of an episode of the Indian version of the award-winning pop-ular television series Sesame Street when she visited India alongwith her husband in March. Little wonder that India’s main lobbygroup for the software industry — the National Association of Soft-ware and Service Companies (Nasscom) — has projected the Indi-an animation industry to log $950 million in revenues in four years— an over three-fold increase. “This trend is particularly hearten-ing as benefits of co-producing are immense,” says Nasscom pres-ident Kiran Karnik.

“Apart from the ownership of intellectual property rights aroundthe world, co-production yields multiple sources of revenue likemerchandising and licensing as firms like Disney have shown,”adds Mr. Karnik.

The entire composting work on the Narnia film, which was nom-inated for an Oscar in the best visual effects category, was done inthe Rhythm and Hues’ Mumbai studios. The company is now busyrepeating its success on the sequel to Garfield and SupermanReturns on which it will also be doing modelling, animation andlighting. The Los Angeles-headquartered firm also expects a majordeal with Fox to come through soon.

So far, the relationship between Indian animation firms and theirdeep-pocketed but cost-conscious western customers has beensomething like this: the customer sends the storyline and the Indi-an firm fulfils his brief. But the scenario is fast changing. TheHyderabad-based DQ Entertainment, for example, among the

largest animation firms in India with clientsincluding Universal, Walt Disney and Mattel,has executed 27 co-production assignmentssince their first one in 2002, out of a total of60 outsourcing contracts.

The company’s order books now show 38co-production projects out of 52 projects linedup for 2006-07. DQ has even set up a pro-duction firm in Mumbai to look after the dis-tribution rights of its titles in South Asia.

“When we began our operations seven yearsago, things were not quite like this. The busi-ness model was quite different from the BPOindustry that was making good profits,” saysDQ Entertainment CEO Tapaas Chakravarthi.

“It is a combination of various factors likecost arbitrage, quality for product pricepoint and the number of shows on air thathas aided this shift,” adds A.K. Madhavan,

CEO of Crest Communications that employs 450 people.A show called Jakers, produced exclusively at Crest’s Mumbai

facility, has been nominated for the Daytime Emmy awards whilethe company has signed on a pact with Lions gate to produce threefeature films in India, he says.

But the success has not come easily. Indian firms worked hard toget their orders, ensuring required quality and charging rates thatbarely allowed costs to be recovered and winning the trust from bigstudios, say industry experts.

All this has been achieved while staving off competition fromother hot outsourcing destinations like South Korea, China, Tai-wan, the Philippines and Eastern Europe.

The average going price for a 24-minute episode outsourced inthe international market is $100,000, while many competing firmstry to undercut each other offering as much as a $40,000 discounteven if that means not being able to recover input costs, say indus-try insiders.

“Production studios are always on the lookout for new destina-tions from where they can get their work done at fractionally lowercosts and this ensures that production costs have been steadilygoing down,” says Mr. Chakravarthi.

“The biggest challenge in moving forward is consistent qualitydelivery. This means an obsession with quality while still meetingdelivery schedules and the ability to scale up production and main-tain those levels for as long as required.”

May 15, 2006 Page 3

PASSING THROUGH

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India Digest on Net

TTUUEESSDDAAYY,, MMAAYY 1166,, 77..0000 PPMMIIlllluussttrraatteedd TTaallkk:: VVeeddiicc RReecciittaattiioonn.. BByy DDrr..SSoollvveeiigg MMccIInnttoosshh aanndd DDrr.. SSaattyyaa NNaarraayyaannSSaassttrrii..Dr. Solveig McIntosh, a scholar, musicianand author of Hidden Faces of AncientIndia, speaks about the Shukla (white)Yajur Veda tradition of recitation andaccompanying mudras and Dr. NarayanShastri, a well known Vedic scholar, willexpound the Krishna (black) Yajur Veda.

FFRRIIDDAAYY,, MMAAYY 1199,, 1111 AAMMEExxhhiibbiittiioonn ooff FFaasshhiioonn GGaarrmmeennttss.. BByy RRoohhiittBBaall aanndd MMaalliinnii RRaammaannii..India’s master of fabric and fantasy, design-er Rohit Bal will bring a special range forLondon with garments designed to suit themodern ladies, as well as menswear. Mali-ni Ramani, who’s called the MilleniumIndian Love Godess, will present holiday &cruise clothes with loads of colour andembellishments. Presented by Kiki.

FFRRIIDDAAYY,, MMAAYY 1199,, 77..0000 PPMMDDaannccee:: BBhhaarraattnnaattyyaamm,, BByy NNaammiittaa BBooddaajjii..Namita Bodaji trains seriously inclinedstudents in Bharatanatyam at her institute,Samskara Academy for Performing Arts,besides choreographing for several insti-tutes and schools.

MMOONNDDAAYY,, MMAAYY 2222,, 66..4455 PPMMEExxhhiibbiittiioonn:: EEaasstt MMeeeettss WWeesstt:: RReelliiggiioonn,,CCuullttuurree,, MMyytthh.. BByy CChhaannddaannaa KKhhaann,, JJaahhaarrDDaassgguuppttaa aanndd SSuuddiipp BBeennaarrjjeeee..London-based painter and novelist BalrajKhanna will inaugurate the exhibition.

TTUUEESSDDAAYY,, MMAAYY 2233,, 77..0000 PPMMMMuussiicc:: CCaarrnnaattiicc VVooccaall RReecciittaall:: TThhee CCoonncceerrttTTrraaddiittiioonn.. BByy VViijjaayyaallaakksshhmmyy SSuubbrraammaanniiaamm..Accompanists: Dr Jyotsna Srikant (violin)and Bangalore Prakash (mridangam).

WWEEDDNNEESSDDAAYY,, MMAAYY 2244,, 77..0000 PPMMDDaannccee:: KKaatthhaakk:: RRookkoo nnaa mmuujjhheeyy ((DDoonn’’ttssttoopp mmee)).. BByy AAssaawwaarrii PPaawwaarr aanndd GGuurruuPPrraattaapp PPaawwaarr..The father-daughter duo will present somerare thumris and ghazals. Known for herexcellent talent for expression in Kathak,Asavari Pawar will also present a few wellknown poems.

TTHHUURRSSDDAAYY,, MMAAYY 2255,, 77..0000 PPMM LLeeccttuurree DDeemmoonnssttrraattiioonn:: TThhee AArrcchhiitteeccttuurraallCCoonncceeppttss ooff BBhhaarraattnnaattyyaamm.. BByy DDeeeeppttiiDDiiwwaakkaarr..Correlating the Vastu concepts of sacredspace and the dance choreography, Deep-ti Diwakar will demonstrate the architec-tural concepts of Bharatnatyam. She will

also explore the poetry of dance in abhi-naya and perform selected pieces to bringout the poetic element and the Navarasas,along with an Ashtapadi of Jayadeva.

FFRRIIDDAAYY,, MMAAYY 2266,, 77..0000 PPMM FFiillmm:: MMaaggiiccaall DDaannccee ooff LLiibbeerraattiioonn.. BByyBBeennooyy KK.. BBeehhll..This film is the result of research andshooting of the monastic Cham danceover a period of 12 years across Leh dis-trict, Zanskar and Spiti.

MMOONNDDAAYY,, MMAAYY 2299,, 66..4455 PPMMEExxhhiibbiittiioonn ooff PPaaiinnttiinnggss:: IInnddiiaann CCoonntteemmppoo--rraarryy AArrtt..Curated by Payal Kapoor, this exhibition ispresented by Arushi Arts, whose goal is totake the works of upcoming as well asestablished artists to different parts of Indiaand abroad to make people aware of thebeautiful art and culture of Indian heritage.

TTUUEESSDDAAYY,, MMAAYY 3300,, 77..0000 PPMMDDaannccee:: KKaatthhaakk PPrreemmiieerree:: HHaaggoorroommoo.. BByyYYuukkoo IInnoouuee..Yuko Inoue is going to premiere one of themost popular stories played in the tradi-tional Noh theatre of Japan, Hagoromo,which has been choreographed by Kumudi-ni Lakhia.

COMING EVENTS AT NEHRU CENTRE

Indian animation industry entersnew dimension

AAbbddooooll RRaaoouuff BBuunnddhhuunn, Vice-Pres-ident of Mauritius, with Prime MinisterManmohan Singh in New Delhi onMay 8.

A delegation of Pakistan People’sParty led by MMaakkhhddoooomm AAmmiinn FFaahhiimmcalls on Prime Minister ManmohanSingh in New Delhi on May 9.

MMaannggaallaa SSaammaarrwweeeerraa, Foreign Min-ister of Sri Lanka, calls on Prime Minis-ter Manmohan Singh in New Delhi onMay 8.

PPeetteerr OOnngg, Permanent Secretary,Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singa-pore, calls on Minister for Commerceand Industry Kamal Nath, in New Delhion May 9.

RRiicchhaarrdd OOnnoouuvviieett, Minister for Min-ing, Energy, Oil and Water Resources,Republic of Gabon, calls on Ministerfor Mines Sis Ram Ola in New Delhi onMay 4.

DDrr.. JJooaaoo BBeerrnnaarrddoo ddee MMiirraannddaa, Min-ister of External Affairs of Angola, calls onPrime Minister Manmohan Singh in NewDelhi on May 10.

A poster of the film “Chronicles of Narnia”.