An animated, immortal Indian love story

'Bhagmati - The Queen of Fortunes' is India's biggest ever animation film, which was released in 2005 amid much fanfare by producer Zee. It was held up as an example of India's prowess in coming out with a world class product. This 1 hour 35 minutes film, Bhagmati is being touted as the longest animation film ever made. But despite its Rs 5 crore budget, making it in India was atleast five times cheaper than anywhere else in the world.

The film depicts the historical romance between medieval prince Qutub Quli Shah of Golconda and a local beauty Bhagmati. The movie is made part in animation and part with living characters. Zee has released the movie in 50 screens across India and is planning an international opening in several languages in a fortnight. But for all that, this magical tale doesn't spell a fairytale ride for the industry.

Director of Bhagmati - Queen of Fortunes, Ashok Kaul told CNBC-TV18, "In India, in the global scheme of things, we don't factor anywhere because this industry doesn not exist. Just to give you a little background on how we started work on Bhagmati. When the project was commissioned, the problem was there were no animators."

For this movie, Zee was so starved for talent that it used a team 110 graduates from its own animation academy to painstakingly sketch the film's seven million plus frames! That is why Bhagmati has an international quality classic animation feel like an 'Alahadin' or 'Lion King'. But without the right artistic input, the result can look rather tacky, like in 'Krishna', which was released in November 2005.

Indian animation wants to do a 'Lion King' or a 'Finding Nemo' but often enough, it's hampered by lack of talented people to do such projects. So, unless Indian universities and colleges recognise animation as a subject, India will continue to languish and not become the artistic powerhouse it aspires to become.

Indian companies like Maya Entertainment and Toonz Animation are lapping up work outsourced by studios in the US, Britain, France, Italy and Germany but it's mostly 3D animation, like that used in 'Spiderman' and not the top level classical variety. Even Mumbai-based Crest Animation Studios, which just signed a multimillion dollars, three-movies deal with America's Lions Gate Entertainment says that manpower shortage is stifling growth.

CEO of Crest Animation Studios, AK Madhavan says, "The Indian universities don't recognise or do not even have a course in animation."

Nasscom says that by the end of 2005, animation in India will be growing at 30% a year would account for USD1.5 billion, while the global animation industry is pegged at USD52 billion! But dreams of this industry becoming the next BPO of India will remain just that - a dream without the necessary talent to go with it.

Written for moneycontrol.com

Discover what lies beneath

'Archaeology – Techniques and Methods’ is a must-have dictionary for archaeologists – both the budding and expert kind. The book is in an easy-to-read and understand format for the layman, who just wants to know what goes into looking for treasures belonging to lost cultures – especially after watching a gripping episode on Discovery Channel!

The alphabetized glossary style of the book makes it a simple task to just look for the word you have in mind. While the lucid way the words are explained is also a relief, for those who may be put off by the dull cover of this book. The author Harpreet Kaur has kept the book accessible to everyone with her idea of explaining archaeological terminology, but the publishers could have done a better job at proof-reading.

For instance, under ‘Mummified and Dried Human Tissues, Study’- this term has been explained well but Christian Era has been spelled as ‘Christian Eera’ – such typographical errors should have been looked into.

But this book, does give a dry subject a good shot at sustaining people’s interest by including fascinating facts like when excavators were digging at the site where the Roman city of Pompeii had once stood, and which was destroyed when the Mount Vesuvius volcano erupted – the excavators found lifelike casts of people. They found casts like that of a woman who was fleeing from the ashes and fumes and who died, while covering a part of her face with her clothing. She was discovered in exactly this manner, centuries later.

Harpreet Kaur has done her research well to unearth these jewel-like details, which will make for great dinner table snippets and conversation. If only, the book also had pictures of these statues – it would have added greatly to its visual appeal.

One rule that should be a must for books such as these – which are not exactly academic but is also not something people will pick up for light reading – is use as many visuals as you can possibly get your hands on. After all, one picture is equivalent to a thousand words – no matter how well written or well said.

Want Craig David and Dido all night long?

Those music channels, whose USP so far has been Hindi film music should wake up and smell the coffee because there is another opportunity waiting in the wings. MTV's sister channel VH1, which with its all-English and no veejay mantra is today a hit with its listeners. This is because niche channels are muscling to media planners notice and therefore, niche music channels can also make the most of this attention.

Though MTV made Hindi film music its mainstay in 1997, when it swept away a huge Indian audience, VH1 has reached its annual target of 12 million subscribers in just 10 months. It has also roped in 20 brands like Pepsi, Nokia, Samsung and Hyundai. The channel has no costs because it airs recycled, international music, no annoying veejays and little programming, this is one channel that is all about pure, unadulterated music. With this, the channel is looking at breaking even in the next two years.

A top source at VH1 told CNBC-TV18, "There are 120 odd channels addressing different market segments. There was this one segment, which was international music and it was going unaddressed and VH1 saw the gap there and came into the country at the right time. So we've hit upon the need gap and we are servicing it and it seems to be large enough so that advertisers also want to come on board and address them." But the honchos at VH1 will continue to want the channel to be more niche based because the market for English music and lifestyle ccontent is that much smaller currently. So the idea is that VH1 will remain India's only English music and lifestyle channel and MTV will be more broadbased.

Even though a broad player like MTV has seen a slight dip in growth, as compared to Channel V, people in the know admit that a channel like VH1 that purely plays music is going to have a high share but Channel V does not want to go down that route. They would prefer to position their channel as a youth product with great music being flanked by glamour and fun activities. All the same, media planners feel that all channels, including niche music channels will have to work to keep the eyeballs glued to their respective channels.

Written for moneycontrol.com

Endearing characters roll off his fingers

Vaibhav Kumaresh is playing God - in less than a week, he'll be breathing life into characters he is moulding for an ad shoot, for Cartoon Network. Like any other kid, Vaibhav doodled his way through school and only realised much later, that he could turn it into a profession thanks to a Visual Communication and Animation Design course at the National Institute of Design, NID, at Ahmedabad.

Today, Kumaresh has an impressive body of work. After Poga of MTV which won gold for the best animation at the Promax Asia Awards 2003, he went on to set up his own studio and more awards came his way. Since then, he's done the Amaron claymation commercials and created that lovable Sardar teacher, Simpu on Channel V.Today, this gifted animator is busy with a new project, every month or so.

He takes up only one project a month, so he can give it his complete attention. He confesses to being very happy doing all kinds of animation because it allows him to work with different mediums.But he also feels that comparisons between the Indian animation industry with Europe or the US is unfair because abroad, "animation is much older. Audiences have been exposed to it for a much longer time. People have been making films, learning from their mistakes, basically the process (abroad) is atleast 18 years old. And, its been around 15 years since animation has picked up as a profession in India. So, I think there is still a long way to go before we are as experienced in the medium as the West."

But is the quality of the animation coming out of India today, matching up to international standards, or are we putting out slipshod stuff? He says, "We haven't applied ourselves enought to long format storytelling and we haven't done it sincerely or consistently enough. So, it works both ways, we need to put in better effort and the infrastructure has got to improve."Keeping this in mind, what kind of work is being outsourced by Italian and French studios to India?

He explains, "There are different structures of studios operating in India. Currently, the more lucrative kind is the type that is totally running on outsourced work." After the awards and the recognition, he set up his own studio and he calls it the most happy moment in his life, well, possibly after his marriage though! He says, "It's definitely better, it's more independent. You are handling your own money and not someone else's money. In all aspects, creatively and financially, you get to work with the best people. Your planning projects that you really want to do and like to do."

The most important factor in any man's success is support from his family. His father pointed him in the right direction by telling him about the course at NID and even enrolling him in. Also, Kumaresh readily acknowledges his wife, Suranjana's role in giving him the space and the encouragement. She is also an NID alumni and she doubles up as partner and co-director in her husband's studio. When they aren't working, the two attempt to cook a meal together, though Kumaresh might just find animation that much easier! Animated movies are something else he likes to unwind with, and his favourite is ofcourse, the adorable 'Lion King'. He says this movie has got all the ingredients - style, characters and storytelling - just perfect.

Written for moneycontrol.com