Animation, the Future of Entertainment industry

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
Do you know who Shrek is, quizzed a colleague quite innocently. In answer, at least eight pairs of eyes looked daggers at her.

"Who doesn't and how preposterous" was the accusatory look from all. A tablefull of adults had taken umbrage to an innocuous question on a lovable animated ogre.

"My wife and I enjoyed the movie last evening," someone murmured (note wife and I; no kids). Immediately everybody tried to outdo each other by their knowledge about the animated character.

"Whoever says animation is still a child's domain in India can take a walk," feels trade analyst Taran Adarsh, who admits to clapping unabashedly like a child at the climax scene of Hanuman.

Take this year, animation and computer graphics films like Happy Feet, Shrek 3, Penguins – A Love Story, Meet the Robinsons, Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Caribbean – At World's End brazenly took on big-starrers, totally overshadowing the latter.

In fact, the craze for animation feature films edged quite a lot of Bollywood biggies like Don II, Eklavya, Salam-e-Ishq, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Nishabd, and many others out in the cold. This goes to prove that from cartoon avatars in the online world to characters in video games, adults are embracing animation like never before.

"We used to hear that animation for adults wouldn't work, but now all our competitors are doing the same," says Pritish Nandy, whose production house Pritish Nandy Communications has recently signed a five-film deal with a Florida-based company for five animated full-length Bollywood feature films with all the trappings of a Bollywood blockbuster – the latka-jhatkas, songs, kissing and love-making scenes.

"For long, animation movies have been treated as kid stuff in India. But now people are looking at it differently; it's the audience's current infatuation. I want to start a trend by making animation films for all, especially the urban youngster. If they want it, why not give it to them? Moreover, we have the technical finesse to support it," says Nandy.

So, why are grownups lapping up movies made for kids? Is it because they consider the fantastical to be as "mature" as realism? Or is it simply because this genre of films brings alive the child in them?

In fact, a global survey conducted by Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, says that 45 per cent viewers of animation films are above 25 years. "The growing popularity of animation films can be attributed to the fact that adults, trying to escape the hum-drum of a fast-paced life, are losing themselves with these child-like characters. It's a kind of stress buster. And with their technical finesse and appeal, these movies are obliterating the distinction between adult and kids' movies," says filmmaker Ketan Mehta, whose production house Maya Entertainment Ltd has been doing animation work for big production houses in the UK and US, and is now considering two full-length animation feature films of its own.

"Hollywood has been making animation films for over four decades now. And it's of late that audiences here have got their first taste of such films. A Shrek or a Spiderman got under their skin because those are the first animated characters that touched their heart. In spite of Hollywood superheroes, our Hanuman and special effects-loaded Krrish got tremendous response. Even filmmakers are waking up to this change in traditional mindset and big production houses are planning a bevy of films in this genre," says Kingshuk Gupta of Maya Entertainment Ltd.

Filmmaker Manmohan Shetty is so optimistic about the future of Indian animation that his company Adlabs Films Ltd and kids' apparel company Gini & Jony have joined hands to produce an animated feature film, based on the characters, 'Gini & Jony'.

Filmmakers on home turf are fast realising that animation art is serious business; it may be fun to look at and collect; yet when it comes to selling and promoting, there's nothing 'Mickey Mouse' about it. Not only that, they are also trying to cash in on the growing demand for this stream and are taking a 360-degree approach a la their Hollywood counterparts by looking at merchandising, gaming, or converting their animated characters into TV series.

So next time you want to escape the daggers, don't look alarmed when your boss walks in wearing a Gini & Jony tee. Just pat him coolly on the back and say, "Hey, I got that too!" You'll soon be welcomed to the gang.