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Keith Arem

Janani Krishnaswamy

Sony PlayStation’s first made-for-India game based on a mythological theme — Hanuman: Boy Warrior — for a global audience has caught the fancy of International game developers too. Keith Arem, Creative Director and President of Los Angeles-based PCB Productions, is planning to come up with an end-to-end Indian game for the Western audience. Guess what, that’s likely to be based on another Indian mythological tale.

Often referred to as the Iron Man in the gaming circles, Arem says he got the idea from the success and popularity of Japanese mythological films and video games. “Many Japanese mythological tales have been used for developing games and they’ve been a big hit in the US and England too.”

Arem was involved in making many fantasy-movie-based video games such as Spiderman, X-man, Iron Man, Lord of the Rings and Prince of Persia. But he’s not restricted himself to any particular genre. “I’ve produced, directed and recorded over 500 commercial releases in film, music and the interactive industry. I used to do a lot of racing, adventure and action games. Now, I’m working on combat games, as well.”

Arem was in India recently, for the first time, to explore options of collaborations with Bollywood film-makers. Asked why he chose India, he says the Indian mobile and online gaming market being “just about to explode,” he wants to be part of it. “I want to offer technical assistance and am looking at a few technological partnerships, here,” he adds.

Arem, who has been an audio director for the interactive industry since 1992, is exploring an opportunity to tie up with Bollywood directors to help him direct movie-based games in India.

Talking about movie-based-games in India, he says music-based games are more popular, and that the interest in ‘sound’ is what brought him here. “I’ve interacted with a few Bollywood bigwigs such as Shekar Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap. They’re quite interested in exploring an opportunity to work with PCB.” Not revealing future plans, he says “we haven’t signed contracts yet, however.”

Besides, Arem was also here to have a feel of the mobile market in India. “I’m looking at using mobile gaming as a possible component to supplement major Bollywood releases — much like the way Hollywood releases movies and games simultaneously,” he says.

He’s also been thinking over the possibility of setting up what he calls a motion-capture studio to enrich the sound quality of games made in India. “I want to set up an animation division for gaming in India with prominent producers and animation companies,” he signs off. Whether it’s the Slumdog Millionaire success or the craze of mythological tales that has initiated these efforts, the gaming world will witness more of it in the coming years, for sure.

janani@thehindu.co.in

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