HYDERABAD: Who said that the T-movement has hit Hyderabad’s high tech image? When India’s most expensive 2D animation movie ‘Luva Kusa’ hits the screens worldwide in July 2010, it wouldn’t be a Disney or a Pixar creation but one ‘Made in Hyderabad’, or more specifically Uppal. The $ 5 million dollar (Rs 25 crore) 70 mm animation adventure based on the Ramayana to be released in English, Hindi and Telugu, has been made (and also produced) by Hyderabad-based Rayudu Media Vision Limited (RMVL), which is just one among a rash of animation firms in Hyderabad that have big budget releases lined up for release.City-based Data Quest Entertainment (DQE) plans to produce two stereoscopic films, The Jungle Book and Charlie Chaplin at an estimated cost of Rs 315 crore, reportedly. This even as Rayudu Media Vision is busy with six animation ventures currently to be released over the next few years. But then these films are only the tip of Hyderabad’s success story in the animation industry. Experts estimate more than 25 production houses have set shop in Hyderabad in the last five years and not without reason. Partnerships with global networks, co-production ventures with international animation firms are now routine developments unfolding in their offices. “More and more production houses in Hyderabad have shifted from doing outsourced work for international companies to making in-house ventures for television and the big screen,” says Rudra Matsya, founder of R M Entertainment. With the animation industry in India estimated to cross the billion mark, Hyderabad is proving to be a major hub for 2D and 3D animation companies in India and world-wide. Take for instance, DQE which has tied up with the popular broadcast group Neo Network to produce a 2D episodic series called ‘Qpiz.’ Star Features, another Hyderabadi firm, tied up with Canada-based Toon Boom, for a new television series for the global audience.
Makers of these animation films insist on just how ‘international’ their approach is to these projects. A case in point is ‘Lava Kusa’. “The film involved almost four years of work by more than 400 artists in our studio at Hyderabad and at Manila. We stuck to the story line which is based on the Ramayana but the visual treatment is different,’’ said Harsha P, the inline producer of Lava Kusa, which has songs rendered by the best names among Indian playback singers — Shankar Mahadevan, Chitra, Yesudas and Sadhana Sargam. The lyrics were penned by the late L Vidyanath and Veturi Sundaramamurthi. Hyderabad’s animation journey is actually over a decade old, just that its making its presence felt globally now, note industry observers. In the past the city has offered television series such as ‘Krishna & Balram’, ‘Chotta Bheem’, both telecast on Cartoon Network and made by Hyderabad-based Greengold Animation. Another local firm, Sun Animatics, has brought ‘Ghatotkach’ into the living rooms of every Indian house. Fuelling the animation trend are the training institutes dotting the city, churning out qualified animation artists, according to Uttam Kumar, managing director of Star Features. What next? An Avatar at Ramoji?
Makers of these animation films insist on just how ‘international’ their approach is to these projects. A case in point is ‘Lava Kusa’. “The film involved almost four years of work by more than 400 artists in our studio at Hyderabad and at Manila. We stuck to the story line which is based on the Ramayana but the visual treatment is different,’’ said Harsha P, the inline producer of Lava Kusa, which has songs rendered by the best names among Indian playback singers — Shankar Mahadevan, Chitra, Yesudas and Sadhana Sargam. The lyrics were penned by the late L Vidyanath and Veturi Sundaramamurthi. Hyderabad’s animation journey is actually over a decade old, just that its making its presence felt globally now, note industry observers. In the past the city has offered television series such as ‘Krishna & Balram’, ‘Chotta Bheem’, both telecast on Cartoon Network and made by Hyderabad-based Greengold Animation. Another local firm, Sun Animatics, has brought ‘Ghatotkach’ into the living rooms of every Indian house. Fuelling the animation trend are the training institutes dotting the city, churning out qualified animation artists, according to Uttam Kumar, managing director of Star Features. What next? An Avatar at Ramoji?
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