‘Make in India’ campaign is apparently developing as a perfect storyboard for the country’s animation industry, if emerging signals are anything to go by.

There are indications that the forthcoming general budget may incorporate a ₹100-crore fund with a view to promoting local content for kids.

Huge demand This could be just the push the industry needs to reinvent itself and create content to meet the huge demand, says P Jayakumar, CEO, Toonz Entertainment.

In major markets abroad, the mandated share of local content is up to 60 per cent except possibly in the US which doesn’t have a reservation policy of this kind.

This is not the case with the rest. Canada, France, Italy, Malaysia and giant China have strong policies favouring local content.

Viewed in this context, the proposed fund could likely give the domestic animation industry a major fillip. But one must also realise that animation costs are high here, Jayakumar warned.

Toonz has become arguably the largest local content provider already. “Across the globe, we’re probably number five in terms of volume of production. We’re currently doing 4,000 minutes of animation per year.”

Domestic outsourcing The Toonz facility at Technopark here employs 350-380 people. But an estimated 4,000 others are working for it elsewhere in the country.

“This is because we’re outsourcing the work domestically. We’re engaging at least 14 such studios across the country. Else, it would be difficult to house large numbers and do the work from here.”

The advantage is that Toonz is now able to funnel big international project into this pipeline. There is huge demand from Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

Tracing its history, Jayakumar said Toonz had started off as an animation outsourcing company in early 2000s. “But now we are much, much more than that.”

The area of creative enterprise has since expanded to a large canvas straddling production, intellectual property (IP), development, licensing and merchandising over the years.

Live-action films It is lately into live-action films. “We’ve already done three such. JK Rowling’s life story has been made a cinema under ‘Magic beyond Words.’ For this, we have tied up with Lifetime Television in the US.”

Toonz has been investing in and focused on developing its own IP from 2005-06. The Adventures of Tenali Raman in 2002 was a small beginning. It is now a major investment and an international project.

In 2006, the company set up Toonz Entertainment in Singapore, which is now the holding company. This was done basically to assuage fears of US clients for whom any IP residing in Indian jurisdiction had implications with respect to piracy.

Then the company went to Canada to set up live-action production facility Toonz Global, a partnership with Canada Government pension fund Fondaction. Both partners have invested $5 million each in the venture.

“We’re already doing a project in partnership with BBC for a live-action film being shot in South Africa and Canada. London-based Magpie Entertainment is a sales and distribution arm.”

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