India: Hotspot for global animators

India is fast becoming a favoured destination for global animators.

Chandigarh-based Compact Disc India Ltd has signed a deal worth a record $20.15 million with Motion Pixel Corporation, a production company from Los Angeles, to co-produce a 3D animation film called Goaaaaal!

As the name suggests, soccer will be integral to the film, which will tell the story of a young girl who aspires to be a soccer world champion and how, through determination and hard work, she fulfils her dream.

It will have Ronaldo and such established names from the glamour industry as Ben Kingsley, Michael Douglas, Samuel L Jackson, Christina Aguilera and Catherine Zeta Jones lending their voices to it. Not just that, the script will also feature animated versions of these celebrities.

CDIL's state-of-the-art studio in Chennai will work on the 90-minute film, which will take about a year to make. Written by renowned Hollywood writer, M Guerrier, Goaaaaal! is expected to release world-wide in 2009, to coincide with the FIFA Confederation Cup.

Says Suresh Kumar, chairman, CDIL, "This is a significant milestone for the Indian animation industry." The same movie would have cost many times more had it been made in the US, he goes on to add.

CDIL expects the movie to do good business, given the wide appeal of soccer. The company could also look at merchandising - in terms of soccer balls, T-shirts, energy drinks - as a revenue stream for the film.

Apart from this venture, CDIL is also working on 2D and 3D animation projects worth $40 million, outsourced by major international production houses.

Among these are Parallel Universe, a six-part television series funded by Malaysian Debt Ventures Bhd, and another animation film, called Hustle Bustle, with Interactive Creative Media Pte. Ltd, Singapore for $12.45 million.

On the home front, CDIL has completed a full-length feature, Friends Forever (slated for an August 2007 release), in which a 3D animated character, Zampano, interacts with live-action characters.

"Indian animation," feels Kumar, "is creating an identity for itself today in the global marketplace." Indeed, a recent independent survey says the Indian animation industry, now pegged at $550 million, will grow 30 per cent annually for the next couple of years to reach $15 billion by 2010.