Animation,gaming: Pune gears up for boom time

Maratha Chamber of Commerce,Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA),that had lobbied for the inclusion of animation and gaming in the IT policy,is convinced this is the new boom sector. “Pune has already taken a lead in this sector. Now,with a proper policy in place,it will help develop other cities like Nashik,Aurangabad and Nagpur,” said Anand Khandekar,chairman of MCCIA subcommittee,on animation and gaming.

Pune has reasons to cheer as it already has good studios and at present a few are even collaborating with international studios like Dreamworks to work on international projects. “Companies like Big Entertainment and Anibrain with manpower of over 100 experts are working on international projects. A lot of work is coming to Pune as the cost involved is less,” Khandekar said.

Kedar Nigvekar,managing director of SeamEdu,that offers full-fledged courses in animation and gaming,agrees. “Work is coming to Pune as it has quality manpower available though in limited number. Much more is to be done in this area though,as now the challenge is to develop skilled manpower to meet the growing demand,” he said.

“We have been offering courses in a different way. We have a commercial tie-up with animation studios like Toolbox and Rhythm and Hues and the students are given opportunity to work on some commercial projects to gain hands-on experience. With the visiting faculty including the likes of Shelley Page of Dreamworks,the students are directly seeing world class experts,” said Nigvekar.

Another private institute,DSK Supinfocom International Campus at Loni,some 30 kms from the city,is offering a certificate course of Supinfocom,a recognised French institute in animation and gaming. According to Umesh Tashildar,director of the institute,the market requirement is to make the courses more in-depth.

“We are offering three-year and five-year courses and have 150 students as we feel that one cannot be an expert after a one-year certificate course,” he said. Already,there are around 30 private institutes that have come up in the city offering courses in animation and gaming. According to MCCIA,the need of the hour may be some kind of benchmarking to ensure quality.

“MCCIA has taken an initiative in this regard and has set up a committee under the chairmanship of former UGC chairman Arun Nigvekar to lay down norms for these institutes,” Khandekar said.

The new IT policy has also spelt out a need for state universities and government bodies such as Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited and Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education to come up with a plan to develop skilled manpower in the sector.

SeamEdu is one of the institutes to have introduced a course on acting for animators. “Many Hollywood animation films are being converted into Hindi films. To make it relevant to the Indian context,we have introduced the course where students are given training on voice culture. It is important to learn how a character emotes in a particular situation and then emote it through voice only,” said Kedar Nigvekar,managing director of SeamEdu.