Why India is Emerging as The Animation Hub for The World

Why India is Emerging as The Animation Hub for The World

If your jaw dropped seeing the spectacles created in the big budget Hollywood films like Avatar, Spiderman : Homecoming, Avengers, Transformers : Dark of The Moon, GI Joe, Deadpool and many others, you will be surprised to know that those striking display of visuals were created in India by Indian animation or VFX artists.

India, in the recent few years have become a major destination for outsourcing animation and VFX projects.

Reason? The cost is almost 35% less than Korea and Philippines and almost one fourth of what it is in Northern USA.

There are various reasons behind India being a cost effective hub for animation projects.

1. Indian companies have a pool of low cost and high quality animation artists. The hi-tech studios in India are fully equipped to execute projects outsourced from overseas countries.

2. The English speaking working force in India made it further easy for the overseas producers to communicate with our VFX and animation artists.

3. India is home to one of the largest entertainment industries in the world. It is obvious that the pool of creativity and ideas in India is abundant.

As per FICCI, India’s Animation, VFX and post production sector is set to reach INR 127.7 billion by 2021. The break up projection of INR 127.7 billion stands as – Animation at 24.4 billion, VFX at 75.5 billion and post production segment at 27.8 billion.

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The animation and VFX work in India will be more driven by outsourced contractual work from foreign countries, higher VFX and animated content on domestic movies, large number of 2D and 3D conversion projects, more amount of television and digital projects and merchandising and licensing of popular characters.

Indian Animation In The World

For almost a decade now, Indian animators and VFX artists have created fascinating visuals for the viewers worldwide. Blockbusters like Avatar, Spiderman, Avengers, Transformers, Harry Potter and Skyfall have Indian artists working on their visual effects.

The popular TV series Game of Thrones also had their larger than life dragon created by Indian subsidiary of Prana Studios. Reportedly, 800 people worked on making those three huge dragons in the series.

Prime Focus, Digital Domain, Phantom FX, Technicolor India, Toolbox Studio, Red Chillies VFX are some of the most well-known VFX and animation studios in India that have worked on some of the biggest Hollywood movies.

Indian Animation At Home

Indian producers earlier fixed only 5-10% of their total budget behind post production work. However, now they are assigning almost 15 to 20% of their total budget to post production tasks. This has resulted in great visual effects for the audience.

Bahubali, 2.0, Zero, Kedarnath, Simmba, Thugs of Hindostan are some of the films that have used multiple visual effects. As per FICCI, the domestic VFX market is going to grow at a rate of 40% over the next few years.

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Animation For The Digital Platforms

The growing digital content consumption in India is contributing to the increasing number of animation shows on various digital platforms.

OTT platform providers are making significant investments to acquire rights over animation projects.

According to a FICCI report, “There are now five Indian companies in the top 100 animation companies on YouTube. They are USP Studios, Chu Chu TV, Green Gold, Hoopla Kids and CVS 3D Rhymes”.

Some of the indigenous animation shows that have become hit among the viewers are Mighty Little Bheem on Netflix, Motu Patlu and Shiva that can be streamed now on Voot Kids, Vir- The Robot Boy on WowKidz, Kalari Kids on Amazon Prime. 

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Animation In Advertisements

The animation revenue pie from the advertisement sector is also rising in India. Over the last decade, there has been a growing number of commercials that are made using animation or VFX technology.

The brands are now partnering with animation studios to create ‘out of the box’ commercials for their product that would ensure them higher retainment or recollection.

PNB Housing Finance, Nestle’s Kit Kat, Ching’s Secrets, Vodafone, Frooti, ICICI Bank are some of the brands whose animated commercials are huge hits among the consumers.

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With animation leaving its mark in every segment of media, creations made in India are set to travel the world far and wide. The future is an ‘incredible time’ for Indian animation and VFX.

Keeping this rising phenomenon in mind, iLEAD is offering a degree course on Animation, Multimedia and Graphics. With fully equipped studios and latest technologies, iLEAD’s B.Sc in Animation, Multimedia and Graphics course is affiliated under MAKAUT. The course is conducted in collaboration with HiTech Animation, one of the most reputed production studios in Eastern India. It also provides international exposure and hands on experience to the students.

if you are passionate about creating spectacular visuals on screen, join the animation degree course at iLEAD now and be a part of this incredible world of animation.