www.pickle.co.in OCTOBER 2019
Biren Ghose
Country Head Technicolor India
INDIA FOCUSED MIPCOM ISSUE
Architect of
AMAZEMENT FOR A DECADE NOW, BIREN GHOSE HAS BEEN THE FACE OF TECHNICOLOR INDIA. HERE’S HOW THE GLOBAL M&E SERVICES GIANT HAS TRANSFORMED INDIA INTO ONE OF ITS MOST PROLIFIC GLOBAL HUBS FOR THE ANIMATION, VFX, GAMING INDUSTRY
Setup by
Organised by
India Pavilion Meet Top Indian Companies at MIPCOM. Stand Number P-1.B 2, P-1.C 7
COME, LET’S DO BUSINESS TOGETHER 1
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KHANAUR
BITTER CHESTNUT
A FILM BY
GURVINDER SINGH Muddled with his own desires and his family’s desires for him, Kishan, a lad of 17, has
to make a choice: whether to live a predictable life around his remote Himalayan village
or migrate to the city. Working in a cafe in a nearby town, he has disturbed sleep and bad dreams at nights. And at times has visions while awake—flashes of fleeting but strong images. Khanaur is the vernacular word for a Himalayan variety of bitter chestnut, which
the villagers believe is made edible by washing regularly for seven straight days. The film looks at the aspirations, fears and insecurities of living in the present times, through the eyes of a young Kishan, as he yearns for the bitterness to eventually fade away from
the fruit. It is about the inner beauty and charm of people who live in harmony with
nature—till now free of the constant pressure of conformity, of embracing consumerism and fruits of globalization. True, Kishan will want to leave one day, wanting to indulge in these temptations.
Khanaur (Bitter Chestnut) is the third feature from Indian director Gurvinder Singh,
whose earlier two films, Alms for the Blind Horse and Fourth Direction, have premiered
at Venice and Cannes film festivals respectively and won numerous international awards. PRODUCER BOBBY BEDI
DURATION 100 MINS LANGUAGE PAHARI, HINDI & ENGLISH
WORLD PREMIERE BUSAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, 2019 NOMINATED FOR KIM JISEOK AWARD
TAGS COMING OF AGE / TRADITION / MODERNITY / MIGRATION CONTENT FLOW FILMS & WEB SERIES PVT LTD bobby@contentflow.in
Eight days. Thousands of new films and projects. Countless opportunities to discover what producers from around the world have developed.
BRINGING FILM TO LIFE
TM
REDEMPTION SONG A TRUE STORY /Ŷ ƚŚĞ ůĂƚĞ ƐŝdžƟĞƐ ĂŶĚ ĞĂƌůLJ ƐĞǀĞŶƟĞƐ͕ ĚƌƵŐƐ ĐƌĞƉƚ ŝŶƚŽ ƚŚĞ ǁŽƌůĚ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ƐĞŵŝͲƵƌďĂŶ ĂŶĚ ƵƌďĂŶ LJŽƵƚŚ ŝŶ /ŶĚŝĂ͘ /Ŷ WƵŶũĂď͕ LJŽƵŶŐ ĐŽůůĞŐĞ ŬŝĚƐ ŐƌĂĚƵĂƚĞĚ ĨƌŽŵ ĚƌŝŶŬŝŶŐ ĂůĐŽŚŽů ƚŽ ĐŽŶƐƵŵŝŶŐ ƉŝůůƐ ůŝŬĞ ŵĂŶĚƌĂdž͘ ĞůŚŝ ƐƚĂƌƚĞĚ ŐĞƫŶŐ ŝŶŇƵĞŶĐĞĚ ďLJ ƚŚĞ ŵƵƐŝĐ ĂŶĚ ĚƌƵŐ ŚĂďŝƚƐ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ tĞƐƚ͘ ůŽŶŐ ǁŝƚŚ ƚŚĞ ĞĂƚůĞƐ͕ ZŽůůͲ ŝŶŐ ^ƚŽŶĞƐ ĂŶĚ ŽŽƌƐ͕ ĐĂŵĞ ŵĂƌŝũƵĂŶĂ͕ ƉŽƚ͕ ĂŶĚ >^ ͘ dŚĞ ŐƌĂĚƵĂƟŽŶ ƚŽ ĐŽĐĂŝŶĞ ĂŶĚ ŚĞƌŽŝŶ ǁĂƐ Ă ŵĂƩĞƌ ŽĨ ƟŵĞ ĂŶĚ ƚŽĚĂLJ ƚŚĞƌĞ ŝƐ Ă ƐĞƌŝŽƵƐ ĞƉŝĚĞŵŝĐ ŽĨ ƚŚĞƐĞ ĂŶĚ ƐLJŶƚŚĞƐŝnjĞĚ ĚƌƵŐƐ͘ hƐĞƌƐ ƌĂŶŐĞ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ǀĞƌLJ ƉŽŽƌ ďĞŐŐĂƌ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ǀĞƌLJ ƌŝĐŚ ĂŶĚ ĨĂŵŽƵƐ͘ dŚĞ ƉƌŽďůĞŵ ǁĂƐ ĞŶŚĂŶĐĞĚ ďĞĐĂƵƐĞ ŽĨ ŝƚƐ ƵƐĞ ĨŽƌ ĐƌŽƐƐ ďŽƌĚĞƌ ƚĞƌƌŽƌŝƐŵ͕ ŝŶƚĞƌŶĂů ĚŝƐĂƌƌĂLJ ĂŶĚ ƚŚĞ ĨƵĞůůŝŶŐ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ WƵŶũĂď ĂŶĚ <ĂƐŚŵŝƌ ĐƌŝƐŝƐ͘ ŚŝƩĂ͕ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚ ƚŚĞ ůŝĨĞ ŽĨ ĂŶ ƵƉƉĞƌͲĐůĂƐƐ ĂĚĚŝĐƚ͕ ǁŝůů ƚĂŬĞ ƵƐ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚ ƚŚĞ ĞŶƟƌĞ ŚŝƐƚŽƌLJ ŽĨ ĚƌƵŐƐ͕ ĨƌŽŵ WƵŶũĂď ƚŽ ĞůŚŝ͕ ĂŶĚ ŝŶ ŵŽƌĞ ƌĞĐĞŶƚ ƟŵĞƐ͕ ƚŚĞ ǁŽƌůĚ ŽĨ ƚĞƌƌŽƌ ĂŶĚ ƚŚĞ ƐŽƌĚŝĚ ƐƚĂƚĞ ŽĨ ĐƵƌƌĞŶƚ ĂĚĚŝĐƚƐ͘ ŚŝƩĂ ĞdžƉůŽƌĞƐ ƚŚĞ ƌŝŐŚƚƐ ĂŶĚ ǁƌŽŶŐƐ ŽĨ Ăůů ƉůĂLJĞƌƐ͗ ƉŽůŝĐĞ͕ ƉŽůŝƟĐŝĂŶƐ͕ ĂĚŵŝŶŝƐƚƌĂƟŽŶ͕ ĚĞĂůĞƌƐ͕ ƚŚĞ ĚĞƚŽdž ĂŶĚ ƌĞŚĂďŝůŝƚĂƟŽŶ ƐLJƐƚĞŵƐ͕ ŚŽƐƉŝƚĂůƐ͕ ƚŚĞ ǀŝĐƟŵƐ ĂŶĚ
ƚŚĞŝƌ ĨĂŵŝůŝĞƐ͘ KƵƌ ƉƌŽƚĂŐŽŶŝƐƚ͕ ǁŚŽƐĞ ůŝĨĞ ŽƌŝŐŝŶĂƚĞƐ ŝŶ ĨĞƵĚĂů WƵŶũĂď ĂŶĚ ŝŶƚĞŐƌĂƚĞƐ ŝŶƚŽ ƚŚĞ ĞŵĞƌŐŝŶŐ ŚŝƉƉŝĞ ĐƵůͲ ƚƵƌĞ ŽĨ ĞůŚŝ͕ ďĞĐŽŵĞƐ Ă ĨƵůůͲďůŽǁŶ ĂĚĚŝĐƚ͘ ,ŝƐ ƐƚŽƌLJ ǁŝůů ƉůƵŶŐĞ ŝƚƐ ǁĂLJ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚ ƐĞdž͕ ǀŝŽůĞŶĐĞ͕ ĚĞďĂƵĐŚͲ ĞƌLJ͕ ĂĚĚŝĐƟŽŶ͕ ƚĞƌƌŽƌŝƐŵ͕ ŵĂƌƌŝĂŐĞƐ͕ ĚĞĂƚŚƐ ŽĨ ĨƌŝĞŶĚƐ ĂŶĚ ĨĂŵŝůLJ͕ ĮŶĂŶĐŝĂů ƌƵŝŶ ĂŶĚ ĞǀĞŶ ƉƌŝƐŽŶ͕ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ǀĞƌLJ ĚĞƉƚŚƐ ŽĨ ŵĞŶƚĂů ĂŶĚ ƉŚLJƐŝĐĂů ĚĞƐƚƌƵĐƟŽŶ͕ ŽŶůLJ ƚŽ ĞŵĞƌŐĞ ůŝŬĞ Ă ƉŚŽĞŶŝdž͘ &ƌŽŵ ĚĞĞƉ ĂĚĚŝĐƟŽŶ ƚŽ ďĞͲ ĐŽŵŝŶŐ Ă ƐƵĐĐĞƐƐĨƵů ĞŶƚƌĞƉƌĞŶĞƵƌ͕ ƐĂŶƐ ĂůĐŽŚŽů͕ ƐĂŶƐ ĚƌƵŐƐ͕ ƐĂŶƐ Ăůů ĂĚĚŝĐƟŽŶ͕ Ă ƉĞƌƐŽŶ ǁŚŽƐĞ ƌĞĚĞŵƉƟŽŶ ŝƐ ĂƐ ƐĞŶƐĂƟŽŶĂů ĂƐ ŚŝƐ ĨĂůů͘ ĂŶ ƚŚĞ ^ƚĂƚĞ ŽĨ WƵŶũĂď͕ ƚŚĞ ŶĂƟŽŶ͕ ĞǀĞŶ ƐŽĐŝĞƚLJ ŚŽƉĞ ĨŽƌ ƐƵĐŚ ƌĞĚĞŵƉƟŽŶ͍ KŶůLJ ƟŵĞ ǁŝůů ƚĞůů͘ sŝƐƵĂůůLJ͕ ŝƚ ǁŝůů ǁĞĂǀĞ ƚŚĞ ǀŝďƌĂŶƚ ĐƵůƚƵƌĞ ĂŶĚ ŵƵƐŝĐ ŽĨ ĨĞƵĚĂů WƵŶũĂď ǁŝƚŚ ƚŚĞ ƚĞdžƚƵƌĞƐ ŽĨ ĞůŚŝ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ͛ϳϬƐ ĂŶĚ ͛ϴϬƐ͘ >ŽŶŐ ŚĂŝƌ͕ ďĞůů ďŽƩŽŵƐ͕ ďĞĂƚ ŐƌŽƵƉƐ ĂŶĚ Ăůů ŽĨ ŝƚ ǁĞĂǀĞĚ ŝŶƚŽ Ă ĐŽŵƉůĞdž ĚĂƌŬ ĨĂďƌŝĐ͕ ďŽƚŚ ďĞĂƵƟͲ ĨƵů ĂŶĚ ĨƌŝŐŚƚĞŶŝŶŐůLJ ƵŐůLJ͘ ŚŝƩĂ ŝƐ ĂŶ ŝŶƐƉŝƌĂƟŽŶĂů ƐƚŽƌLJ ƚŚĂƚ ǁŝůů ŬĞĞƉ LJŽƵ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ĞĚŐĞ ŽĨ LJŽƵƌ ƐĞĂƚ͕ ĞƉŝƐŽĚĞ ĂŌĞƌ ĞƉŝƐŽĚĞ͘
CONCEPT BOBBY BEDI DIRECTOR GURVINDER SINGH GENRE DRAMA FORMAT (3,62'(6˨ 0,187(6 7:2 6($6216 LANGUAGE HINDI STATUS SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT
AMERICAN FILM MARKET
NOVEMBER 6 - 13
|
S A N TA M O N I C A
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| AMERICAN FILM MARKET.COM
KEd Ed &>Kt &/>D^ Θ t ^ Z/ ^ Wsd >d ďŽďďLJΛĐŽŶƚĞŶƚĨůŽǁ͘ŝŶ
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THE INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FILM FESTIVAL
FESTIVAL
15TH -20TH JUNE 2020 MIFA
16TH -19TH JUNE 2020
12,300 BADGEHOLDERS 914 EXHIBITING COMPANIES
60
th
92 COUNTRIES 414 JOURNALISTS* 8
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WWW.ANNECY.ORG
ANNIVERSARY
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INDIAN COMPANIES AT MIPCOM Sangeeta Godbole, Director General, Services Export Promotion Council is at MIPCOM to help Indian companies to boost exports and expand global footprint. 17 delegates are participating for the firsttime through the SEPC delegation at the India Pavilion.
E Plus Studio is at MIPCOM to meet producers, professionals from production houses, animation studios, television broadcasters who would want to outsource their projects or those who would want to develop their projects partnering with it.
BOL [Business Of Languages] is at MIPCOM to offer language dubbing/subtitling services to various broadcasters and digital companies. The company is one stop shop for all requirements pertaining to language translations/dubbing/audio recordings.
GoQuest Media Ventures is a MIPCOM looking for licensing popular Ukrainian and Russian scripted shows. Also looking at co-production opportunities in the drama space and acquisition of TV series worldwide.
Paperboat Design Studios is at MIPCOM to meet contemporaries from all over the world. To exchange ideas, discuss projects, and begin new partnerships.
Star India will be presenting its line up of some of the biggest Indian Dramas
Raaj Kamal Films International is at MIPCOM for networking to sell original scripts and completed content.
Super Audio (Madras)’s main objective of this MIPCOM is to sell/license three new animated IPs which are targeted at preschoolers.
at MIPCOM. The shows are available for licensing/sales as both finished dramas and scripted formats.
DQ Entertainment Int Ltd is at MIPCOM to meet with existing and new producers, broadcasters and distributors from across the world for distribution of its content and also look for co-production partners for its IPs in Development.
Green Gold Animation Pvt Ltd is at MIPCOM to meet potential Broadcasters/ OTT platforms/ Producers/ Distributors for exploring acquisition, co productions and service work opportunities.
Reliance Animation is at MIPCOM to collaborate with Animation studios (2D or 3D) across the globe whether for co-production or otherwise also distribute its content in International market and Offer VFX solutions.
Indiacast Viacom 18 is at MIPCOM for International Syndication of Indian Content including Romance, Family Dramas, Costume dramas, Animation, Fantasy, Scripted & Unscripted formats and Factual Entertainment shows.
Earthcare Productions (P) Ltd is at MIPCOM to seek buyers and acquisitioners for its Series ‘Heroes of the Wild Frontiers’ which is a 6 X 25 min docu-series on the Forest Guards of India.
Hungama Digital Media is at MIPCOM to acquire content for its OTT platforms in India & globally. Content with all digital rights that include mobile & internet. Syndication of Hungama Original Series, Music Originals & Bollywood Hungama (a portal dedicated to Bollywood news)
Sony Music Entertainment India is at MIPCOM for Syndication & Licensing its domestic content created in India across Languages- Hindi, Punjabi & Tamil to the World. Also, it is promoting its homegrown artistes - Badshah, Hardy Sandhu, Aaksa, Aashtha Gil, Mad Stuff Rob.
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd is at MIPCOM for international content partnerships.
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GREEN GOLD ANIMATION @ MIPCOM STAND NO P-1.K14
Chhota Bheem - A Journey Worth Every Moment Beginning its journey in 2008 on Pogo, Chhota Bheem and its different avatars have transcended cultural and geographical boundaries to gain love and acceptance from an audience of over 100 million and growing. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; By Rajiv Chilaka, Founder & CEO, Green Gold Animation
C
hhota Bheemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journey to the small screen was by no means an easy one. I realised the huge opportunity in our country for original Indian Kids IP content. Chhota Bheem was an idea conceptualized in 2004 itself. The industry at that time was not open to many ideas and the scope of an indigenous IP was minimal. But the potential was there to be tapped into. I truly believed that kids would connect with and love a character that they could relate to and thus decided to focus on creating IP content for Indian audience.
Multiple pitches and numerous iterations later, we finally got the green signal from Pogo to create the Chhota Bheem show in 2007. Looking back today, the amazing love and acceptance shown by kids towards Bheem makes the arduous journey worth every moment. The love for the show ensured that Chhota Bheem never went off air in LITTLE BHEEM BECAME India since its pilot episode. It resulted THE TOP PRESCHOOL TITLE in a decade of Bheem entertaining kids in different avatars, the latest of which GLOBALLY ON NETFLIX. IT IS is Mighty Little Bheem. The franchise PERFORMING WELL IN US, today has an audience of over 100 million and growing.
CANADA, BRAZIL, MEXICO AND OTHER TERRITORIES. BHEEM TODAY IS A LOVING PART OF HOMES ACROSS 190 COUNTRIES
I have always believed that the love for Bheem is universal but Mighty Little Bheem was the litmus test. We put our heart and soul in creating Mighty Little Bheem. It was a departure for us as well from our conventional projects as it was our first preschool show. The entire creation process has been a brilliant rollercoaster and an eye opener for us. Creating a non-dialogue music driven show that transcended cultural and geographical boundaries has been a revelation. Little Bheem became the top pre-school title globally on Netflix. It is performing well in US, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and other territories. Bheem today is a loving part of homes across 190 countries. Chhota Bheem, the brand, has been growing for the last decade. When we realized the popularity of Bheem, we also realized that kids wanted to have a personal Bheem, thus started our merchandising journey. From a few comics and products, we
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have grown our presence to exclusive retail, modern trade, ecommerce as well as licensing. With over 100 brands partnering with us over the last decade, Chhota Bheem has consistently been among the most recognized and recalled kids brand in India. And it all started in Hyderabad. The city is the hub for visual arts and animation, and it will soon have its IMAGE tower, a beautiful amalgamation of history, modern design and technology. Animation, Gaming and Visual Fx industries thrive on creative and technology ecosystems. The worldclass tower provides a vibrant environment for the AVGC industry. The Telangana Government dedicated IMAGE policy on the industry will empower young and talented entrepreneurs to foray further and compete with the best projects worldwide. The animation and the VFX segment witnessed a strong growth of 18.7% in FY19, to reach a size of Rs. 87.7 billion. The sector will grow at a CAGR of 16% between FY19 and FY24 and reach Rs. 184 billion. What is extremely heartening to know is that the Indian Animation IP production (excluding animation services) has a year-on-year double digit growth: almost double of what it was in 2012. With a population of 373 million between ages of 1-14 in India itself,
this trend will only improve upon in the coming years. Even though 70-80% of animation revenue in India comes from international projects, India’s share in the global industry is less than 1%. Immense potential is here. With the advent of OTT, the average content consumption in India has gone up from 450 hours a year, to almost 6000+ hours a year in the last 5 years. Animation has had a big role to play here. The success of Mighty Little Bheem and other Indian IPs globally has proven the importance of region agnostic content and the caliber of home grown IPs. I believe this is the right time to move forward and take our rightful place in the global animation industry. The ease of access to global content has evolved the audiences taste and raised the standards for all creators. The quality and the ability of it to connect across regions is paramount. Keeping this in mind, we have set up our offices in Los Angeles to focus on and create IPs with global potential and appeal. The team, led by Mr. Marc Lumer, a veteran of the industry and illustrator extraordinaire, is creating IPs which are presently in various stages of production. The world is becoming a smaller place. And there is so much potential to do stories which are from India, of Indian stories.
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FIRING IMAGINATIONS In the last two decades of its existence, Technicolor India has grown from a relatively small outfit with a few hundred people to a veritable giant in CG animation production having over 6,000 artists and technicians driving the world’s largest standalone studio. Bringing scale and consistency to the animation business on the back of innovative new approaches drawing strength from ideas challenging the status quo, Technicolor today has the world’s premier portfolio of visual effects brands, services, and creative innovations. Pickle chats with Biren Ghose, Country Head, Technicolor India
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pending 10 years at the helm of Technicolor India, Biren Ghose, who joined the company when it was still a small outfit known as Paprikaas Animation, has played an instrumental role in its transformation into the bellwether for the animation visual effects gaming and image-making industry that it is today. A leader, who considers himself “a naturally creative individual”, Ghose firmly believes in “creative thinkers” rather than “good workers”—an approach that has helped Technicolor India scale new heights on the back of cutting-edge technologies that are fast transforming the movie making landscape in India. A keen participant in Technicolor’s transformation process to emerge as the most trusted and most efficient and reliable partner in creative business, what better brain to pick than Biren Ghose to get further insights into the CG industry. So, we decided recently to catch up with him to know about his views and perspectives on Technicolor’s journey so far, contribution it made in the M&E sector and where the company is heading. Here are the excerpts: As someone who has been at the helm of Technicolor India for the past one decade, tell us about your journey so far? BG: The 10 years at the helm of Technicolor India seem to have just flown by in a delightful collage of sounds, sights and celebrations. I
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Biren Ghose, Country Head, Technicolor India
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joined the company when it was the joint venture, Paprikaas Animation, majority owned by the Technicolor Group, which was later bought out to make it a 100% Technicolor company. Technicolor India was the group’s first foray into CG animation in India. At the time, DreamWorks animation already had a dedicated feature film unit. The TV team was working with clients like Nickelodeon on high end TV series. This along with the work for EA for their iconic FIFA game became the ‘kernel of an idea’ that would over time help build this into the world’s premier studio for episodic TV animation. The goal was always to make India a robust hub for Technicolor in the computer graphics animation arena. MPC was already the London HQ brand that Technicolor had owned for some years and one of my first tasks after joining the company was to create India’s 1st global VFX studio to advance their global ambition. I joined Technicolor as I shared the belief of our CEO, Fred Rose and President, Tim Sarnoff that we could make something extraordinary by combining India’s talent with Technicolor and MPC’s world class tools and technologies. The company was back then a relatively small outfit with a few hundred people. Fast forward to today! Technicolor is a veritable giant in the production of episodic CG TV animation and holds an advantageous prime position when any of the biggest and most technologically advanced shows are being considered by
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WOW FACTS - TECHNICOLOR INDIA 2018-19 any of the Hollywood majors. What’s more astounding is that we have grown into the world’s largest standalone studio and that our games business serves the world’s most sought after publishers for their AAA titles. What enabled this transformation is too long a list to spell out in one interview but at a high level, the following are some of the attributes that made the success we see today: • Focus on Creativity and Artist Development - artists want to work on the best shows and hone their skills to greater heights. •
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Clients find the multi-location - the workflow and communication make them believe it is THE ROOM NEXT DOOR! Extending World-Class Pipelines, Workflows & Methodologies to India connecting it to group locations in LA, London, Vancouver, Montreal, New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Chicago and Shanghai increase the “real time” shared production paradigm.
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Creating the Cultural Alignment - Between Technicolor’s family of brands and its highly pedigreed roster of clients
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Scale and Intensity of High-end Projects - clients prefer to work with a partner that can operate at a scale without any decrease in quality or productivity depended on the Technicolor pedigree to take this chance in a new locale
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Biren Ghose & Nathan Wappet, COO - Production Services - celebrating the 100 glorious years of Technicolor
offerings tailored to the specific creative and storytelling needs of each project, we power premium content. Our diverse family of VFX brands includes: MPC, The Mill, MR. X, Mikros MPC Advertising, and Technicolor VFX. Each studio has their own unique approach to help storytellers create out of this world experiences. What is the secret behind Technicolor India managing to achieve this huge scale? BG: Strategy is an organic rather than a mechanical process. Indians tend to think with our hearts (as well as our heads) and so it’s easier to understand this phenom-
Financial and data security are a key consideration in ensuring TECHNICOLOR global productions guard INDIA HAS against completion risks.
enon! We don’t plan in the TECHNICOLOR traditional linear manner HAS HELPED paying attention just to the BRING SCALE AND excel sheets. We do not folCONSISTENCY TO low the traditional way in which other local studios THIS BUSINESS are set up and run. Like in AND INDIA HAS all changing businesses the BEEN A KEY historical expertise and age- INGREDIENT IN THIS old templates are being rap- FORMULA HELPING idly devalued in our growth THE GROUP AND story. Discovery is key and ITS CLIENTS TO our mantra of continuous ACHIEVE THIS evolution is possible as we SCALE go beyond the traditional ‘expertise’ to new idea-rich artists and technicians who challenge the status quo and innovate with new tools, technologies and ideas. For an example, Technicolor’s Genesis is our new Virtual Production platform. This enables filmmakers to make better creative choices much earlier in the production process leading to high-quality outcomes. Using a game engine platform to emulate live-action film production in a VR space, Genesis helps to conceptualize each frame even before the shoot or CG shots are executed. This will substantially increase the potential to scale up locations like India as the iterations are reduced through a far more specific pre-visualization of the shot. Our intellectual property, as a services business, is our best practices and production technology even more spectacular and artist-friendly. We do not have a singular way as the only way to produce the imagery expected of us. We are anti-dogma. We rise to the complexities of each project. We not only rise to it, but rise with it. The way Technicolor has successfully
GROWN INTO THE
What are the major con- WORLD’S LARGEST tributions made by Tech- STANDALONE STUDIO AND nicolor India in terms of impacting the global CG THAT OUR GAMES industry? BUSINESS SERVES BG: Technicolor’s contribu- THE WORLD’S tion to this industry is both MOST SOUGHT qualitative and quantitative. AFTER PUBLISHERS Technicolor has helped bring FOR THEIR AAA scale and consistency to this business and India has been TITLES a key ingredient in this formula helping the group and its clients to achieve this scale. For all of the group’s studios in the US, Canada, Europe and China, Technicolor India is the engine under the hood! Technicolor is home to the world’s premier portfolio of visual effects brands, services, and creative innovations. With locations that span the globe and service
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FILM & TV SNAPSHOTS MPC has over 21 Movies in progress at a time MPC Worked on over 25000 shots + 1250 builds + 10 movies 75% of the global compositing is done in India Internal Academy for film VFX produced 311 graduates over 41 batches almost 100% absorbed!. World’s biggest Compositing & Assets team of 735 artists Mr.X VFX working on 28 shows 14 Features + 14 Series Mr.X currently working on movies like Franklin, Hellboy, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Pet Sematary and series including Vikings - S6, American Gods S2, Knightfall -S2. · Film and TV VFX has over 2000+ world-class artists in India
ANIMATION & GAMES [ANNUAL SNAPSHOT] Delivered 2745 minutes of animation Created 3911 assets Working on shows for Walt Disney Animation; DreamworksAnimation TV; Nickelodeon; and others Alvin & the Chipmunks season 4 is the longest running show Delivered 1623 minutes of Games animation Created 9772 Games assets Working with EA on FIFA for the past 10 years Clients include Ubisoft; Sony; Activision; Rockstar; Gameloft; & many others.
ADVERTISING VFX Billed over 40000+ man-days Team of approx 400 artists [India’s largest] Work across 10 disciplines (modelling, composting, etc) 600+ projects completed Comp. Supervisor won most prestigious VES Award Won 4 awards for the acclaimed VR project, Last Goodbye -) Worked on 26 Superbowl commercials Won a Cannes Lion, ADC Gold, Creative Circle, British Arrows and many other awards.
The India Shared Services provides stellar support allowing production and creative to focus. This team has grown only 2x while the studio grew 10x
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Biren’s vision: “make visual communications & the arts an instrument of change in India’s economic & community development”.
SCALE VECTORS AT TECHNICOLOR INDIA Talent - finding the appropriate dynamic for internal upskilling of Indian talent to bring them to worldclass artistic levels. Proprietary methods and content Technicolor Academy (internal only). Technology - no company as heavily in animation & VFX in India to set up high-end technology infrastructure to levels of investment and sophistication so that their clients and artists have the best. Production savvy - how do you manage resources and juggle between multiple projects in different phases of execution? India had acquired a dodgy reputation for on-time delivery. We made sure this was the gold standard to enable scale. Culture - we remain rooted and grounded through all of the business acceleration we see across the business units. It’s not what we say about who we are or our way of doing business but how we practice it on a daily basis. This unique feature makes the team pull together as one.
achieved scale in creating innovative employees is really commendable. What is your thinking behind talent acquisition? BG: Over the years in the VFX and animation business, we know that there exists a significant and unsolved challenge of getting the best out of our artistic talent. I believe this is because of the way we have been managing the industry for over a 100 years that creates ‘good workers’ rather than ‘creative thinkers’. We have achieved scale at Technicolor India by constantly building our leadership team that is encouraged to innovate and try new approaches, in turn, they must encourage those within their teams. As this simplification takes place at the front-end of production, it allows businesses in India to build up greater scale of production. Our clients and partner studios see the way we think, act and celebrate our spirit of constant renewal and attempts to be increasingly brilliant. This is what makes us amazing. When I joined, one of our key clients told me: “It’s perfect - please don’t change anything”. In hindsight I realize what he meant was, don’t change our dynamics, our winning ways, our culture of synchronous teamwork, but let those values and that culture create the change together. It has been famously said that in the production services of animation, visual effects and games “our business is talent”. There are hundreds of thousands of folks in India that graduate in what is loosely called animation. These “schools” cannot produce production-ready talent.
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How has moviemaking changed... you described the massive innovation in the making of the latest Disney’s The Lion King? How will these technologies change and influence movie making?
The world is continuously stunned by the enormity and complexity that goes into a single 90minute VFX driven animated movies such as Disney’s TheLionKing. Technicolor’s MPCfilm which has a huge team in Bangalore besides LA, London and Vancouver created the entire VFX with Director Jon Favreau and the Disney team. Hold your breath as we give you only the highlights. Making this movie entailed: Capturing 240,000 photos, 1490 final shots, executing the highest ever photoshoot mission, producing 66 Sets covering 150 Sq. km [that’s an area bigger than South Korea or Greece!], 921 Various Species of flora and trees, 42+ hours of reference footage, 17 heroes, 63 unique species of fauna, 847,013 Dailies, 7975 Animation Submissions, 6182 Final Comp Submission, 18,000kms travelled, 676,578 Bugs [insects not glitches!],100 Billion blades of grass and all this was done by just 1250 people. You will agree that this is a breath-taking labour of love! This enormous “canvas” has been made possible because we at Technicolor continue to pioneer new methods to reimagine storytelling. Creativity needs Technology and the India team, working with our global ecosystem of studios and within their pipelines, can deploy the right mix of training and excellence in multiple disciplines. Accordingly, we have grown to become the world’s largest team for film VFX in disciplines such as Rotoanimation; Tracking; Assets & Compositing. Additionally, our teams in Rotoscopy and Paint where India is now overall is gaining huge momentum.
Biren with the 2017 Oscar that was for Best Visual Effects for Technicolor’s MPC Film. For the work on Disney’s The Jungle Book.
Women at Technicolor India and “balance” is a huge initiative. The Overseas Women’s Club of Bangalore visited.
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Notwithstanding this, Tech- OUR SUCCESS IS nicolor India has grown to TO MAKE INDIA a team of about 6000 artists CONTINUOUSLY and technicians. AdditionalPRODUCTIVE AND ly, we work with a preferred network of vendors which COMPETITIVE amounts to several hundred WITHIN OUR additional artists almost GROUP THROUGH THE RIGHT MIX throughout the year. Students with restless OF INVESTMENTS minds and bodies, far from AND INNOVATION being encouraged and lever- AND TO INVENT aged for their curiosity and NEW PARADIGMS their youthful energy are IN SOFTWARE AND ignored and there is a stigma WORKFLOWS FOR attached to those who do not follow cookie-cutter meth- OUR ART FORM. ods! The dogmas of this past INDIA IS A PARTNER method of educating people IN ALL ASPECTS OF and developing their skill THIS EVOLUTION sets is totally inadequate in an age of rapid change. We have to think and act anew in the business of creativity where ideas, visualization and initiatives are of paramount importance. These senses have to be rejuvenated and encouraged to experiment and grow. We need each artist to work to a level of confidence and to sell their own ideas and creativity and hone it in the process. I believe that over time we have become really savvy in identifying potential. When we interview an artist we look at their abilities based on some of the work they have previously done and determine how quickly they might be able to upskill their levels to become productive within
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Our success is to make India continuously productive and competitive within our group through the right mix of investments and innovation and to invent new paradigms in software and workflows for our artform. India is a partner in all aspects of this evolution.a
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BEHIND THE SCENES
Biren keeping up with Sean Mullen, Creative Director - Animation & Games) at ‘Housefull’ - the legendary annual day!
our world-class team. This process has matured across all the disciplines that it takes to produce every single frame of film that we create. Modelling, texturing, rigging, lighting, compositing, FX are all crucial skills that need a very different intrinsic ability from a generation of artists trained at the workplace. When I joined Technicolor, we decided to hire people into our company’s academy and make them production-ready internally. While this adds hugely to the cost and complexity, we believe it’s less of a distraction than having to set up and run a school on our own. Besides the workforce in-house, to- INDIA IS EMINENTLY day there are almost 4,000 PLACED TO BE amazing artists that we have THE NO. 1 GLOBAL trained in our studio that SERVICE PROVIDER have gone on to help grow the industry in our country WHEN IT COMES TO VFX AND ANIMATION and beyond. We are proud of the AND CG DISCIPLINES contribution we have made to this sector and believe that as we capitalize on our past learnings we will be able to take our proprietary training methodologies to even greater excellence. Work-life balance is the key to rejuvenation of the creative professional. Our HR in each of our services, plan and execute employee engagement programs that are second to none. As an example, Housefull, which is Technicolor India’s annual party, has become legendary as an institution. It demonstrates to clients as well as to global management, the passion and excitement with which Technicolor India plays as
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hard as it works! It is a celebration of the year’s work and is evidence of the youthful passion and creativity through the choreography, music, attire and dancing like you couldn’t imagine. What drew you to the media and entertainment sector? What keeps you going even after serving the sector for two decades? BG: I consider myself a naturally creative individual and have been involved in innovative projects from the beginning of my career. Having been given the chance to create a consumer durable startup at the age of 26, I have invariably been involved
in the journey of taking the THE OPPORTUNITY spark of an idea from blank TO BE A COpages, to insights, to execuFOUNDER WITH tion. As a marketer, this has RONNIE SCREWALA always entailed understanding the consumer and find- AND UTV (NOW ing those moments of seren- WALT DISNEY dipity that would help win INDIA) AND LAUNCH the battle for their minds BROADBAND and hearts. STREAMING In my projects with USHA PLATFORMS (IN fans and sewing machines; 1999) IN LOCAL working at Kingfisher and INDIAN LANGUAGES McDowell’s, etc I was always WAS MY BAPTISM involved in media from the BY FIRE IN THIS other side of the table. As someone commissioning and INDUSTRY approving the creative, I have always actively partnered in the storytelling for our consumer brands. I crossed the floor into the media business in 1999 when I sought to come back to India at the giddy heights of the dot com wave. The opportunity to be a co-founder with Ronnie Screwala and UTV (now Walt Disney India) and launch broadband streaming platforms in local Indian languages was my baptism by fire in this industry. I believe that it’s not where you work but who you work with that is a key driver for me in my professional pursuits. The thought leadership that Ronnie provides in Indian media, and then working with global stalwarts like Kishore Lulla of Eros and later with the likes of Tim Sarnoff at Technicolor; Mark Benson and Christian Roberton at MPC have helped me to continuously frame and reframe my professional context with their passion, guidance and intellectual honesty. The level of maturity among Indian companies in the media and entertainment
Biren is a regular and active participant and speaker at both CICAF and domestic industry events. He is seen here at the international and at the Game Developer Conference
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RAPID FIRE What is your idea of perfect happiness? BG; A balanced life What is your greatest fear? BG: Economic forces that disrupt what I have helped create professionally and personally What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? BG: Impatience What is the trait you most deplore in others? BG: Lethargy Which living person do you most admire? BG: Bill Gates What is your greatest extravagance? BG: Buying music What is your current state of mind? BG: Pivoting towards the next 10 years
What do you consider the most overrated virtue? BG: Blind obedience to any cause On what occasion do you lie? BG: When I buy more wine and the fridge is already full! What do you most dislike about your appearance? BG: Waistline! Which living person do you most despise? BG: Varies from time to time What is the quality you most like in a man? BG: Humility What is the quality you most like in a woman? BG: Assurance Which words or phrases do you most overuse? BG: Amazing; Yes; Let’s do it; Wow!; What or who is the greatest love of your life? BG; My wife & daughters - my parents, sister and my wife’s family. When and where were you happiest? BG: It depends when you ask me - as of today it is today! Which talent would you most like to have? BG: Formula 1 driver If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? BG: My weight! What do you consider your greatest professional achievement? (Continue on page 30)
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(Continue from page 29)
THE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP THAT RONNIE PROVIDES IN INDIAN MEDIA, AND THEN WORKING WITH GLOBAL STALWARTS LIKE KISHORE LULLA OF EROS AND LATER WITH THE LIKES OF TIM SARNOFF AT TECHNICOLOR; MARK BENSON AND CHRISTIAN ROBERTON AT MPC HAVE HELPED ME TO CONTINUOUSLY FRAME AND REFRAME MY PROFESSIONAL CONTEXT WITH THEIR PASSION, GUIDANCE AND INTELLECTUAL HONESTY
RAPID FIRE BG: Having mentored a generation of amazing managers and inspired a generation of young professionals, Where would you most like to live? BG: New York What is your most treasured possession? BG: Family. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? BG: Losing a child, spouse or parent What is your favorite occupation? BG: Music. What is your most marked characteristic? BG: Humor & Energy What do you most value in your friends? BG: Accepting each other as they are. Those you can pick up from where you left off without regard to what life has done to each of us in the interim. Sincerity. Forgiveness. Who are your favorite writers? BG: Shakespeare [his diversity of genres & appeal to the common man!] Who is your hero of fiction? BG: Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird Which historical figure do you most identify with? BG: Leonardo da Vinci Who are your heroes in real life? BG; Eric Clapton - for the way he renewed himself artistically & through personal rehabilitation What are your favorite names? BG: Ragini, Radhika & Deepika What is it that you most dislike? BG: The status quo. [Standing still is sliding backward!] What is your greatest regret? BG: That I was not born in 1995 What is your motto? BG; “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness”
Biren the diplomat & ambassador for Technicolor and a champion of the digital arts sector needs to do a lot of serious stuff. Yet he never misses an opportunity to have some fun!
industry is rapidly improving to the point where the players can now appreciate when to compete and when to collaborate. With government trying to boost the growth of M&E sector, what is your take on India emerging as a digital and M&E hub? BG: India is eminently placed to be the no. 1 global service provider when it comes to VFX and animation and CG disciplines. We are well-placed to enable the world’s content creation and serve producers and studios with digital imagery. We have fully demonstrated our prowess in the contemporary disciplines and are working with emerging technologies like immersive media that need even more firepower!
Given the current growth rate of the animation & VFX industry what I would like to see is that while the media industry grows from Rs. 1.9 trillion to Rs. 2.35 trillion in the next 2 years & the animation services sector is slated to grow from 8% of the total to 11% of the total in its current trajectory per the published reports, this does not reflect the true potential of what the country can achieve. Given the recent boost to the digital audiovisual industry by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry and its identification as a champion sector, there is an immense opportunity to boost exports exponentially. I see that with the right impetus and incentives for this sector and anima-
tion and VFX services alone can be a Rs 1 trillion sector by 2025. As a leader, what are the different kinds of opportunities do you see emerging in the Indian M&E space? BG: The tools to create stories are exploding. I see this as a paradigm shift, because we are in the age of immersion—the age when people are their own heroes & participate in their own adventures. The digital world has transformed the 100 years of making movies with a camera. The innovation has taken the magic from the front of the camera to extraordinary heights of what goes on inside and behind it! This is where we at Technicolor India are blazing new trails at scale. Today’s world is about taking something you love and turning it into a billiondollar idea! We have taken a media startup in India from its humble beginnings and are focusing on being a company that has rapidly scaled to Rs. 10 billion. In the process, we have become the bellwether for the animation visual effects gaming and image-making industry.
Biren with Technicolor CEO Fredrick Rose and the entire Technicolor India team in 2015-16 - the team has tripled in size to 6000 artists since!
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PAPERBOAT @ MIPCOM STAND NO P-1.B 2, P-1.C 7
SAILING WELL IN
ANIMATION WATERS India has a pool of trained artistes. They are computer literate and proficient in English. Also, we can offer rates that very few in the world can offer,” says Soumitra Ranade, Founder and Creative Director of Paperboat Design Studios Pvt. Ltd
We are excited to see Bombay Rose, directed by Gitanjali Rao, (premiered in Venice and screened at other prestigious events) was made at Paperboat Studios. What went into the making journey of Bombay Rose?
A LOT OF EXCITING STUFF IS HAPPENING BUT THE CLOSEST TO OUR HEART IS OUR PROPOSAL OF AN ANIMATION SCHOOL ATTACHED TO A STUDIO IN KASHMIR. WE ARE VERY KEEN ON THIS AND WE HOPE THINGS WORK OUT VERY SOON
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Bombay Rose has a very unique style, which is Gitanjali’s personal style. She had made her short film True Love Story in a similar style mostly on her own with only a few artistes. However when it comes to a feature film the dynamics are entirely different. The project has to get into a studio mode even while it remains personal expression. That was our main challenge - to maintain the integrity of the image even as production happens in a conveyer belt like situation. We couldn’t allow any leakages anywhere. The final image, even after having gone under the hands of numerous artistes, had to be exactly as Gitanjali had envisaged.
Soumitra Ranade, Founder and Creative Director of Paperboat Design Studios Pvt. Ltd
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But we have a very simple solution for this, which we had tried in our earlier animation film Goopi Gawaiyaa Bagha Bajaiyaa and had succeed. With Bombay Rose too we trained about 30 artistes for a period of three to four months. They were trained under Gitanjali and our design
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team. Obviously there were many hiccups in the early days. It takes time for artistes to unlearn what they have been doing for years. But we got through that phase eventually and only when we were all on the same page, did we start the production. After that it went quite smoothly since each and every artiste knew exactly what Gitanjali had in mind. I think what we have achieved is truly phenomenal. About 200,000 frames were hand-painted individually - each with multiple characters in about 18 months. How difficult is to manage an animation service ecosystem run by creative leaders? It is very ironic... Honestly I think this is the only way to do it! Besides being a writer-director, I have also been the executive producer on all my films. So I did have certain management skills. Running a studio is slightly different and we did have some issues initially. But we worked around that, hired professional managers and created a system that is driven by the creative and run by the managers rather than it being the other way round.
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Haksar with her Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon (partly animated) and now Bombay Rose. All three films have gone international in a big way. GGBB was the first Indian animation feature that was premiered at TIFF. Ghode Ko was selected for Sundance. BR was the first Indian animation film opening the Critics Week at Venice. All three have gone to many other festivals and won numerous awards. This gives us great happiness because these are all our films! It also makes us happy that Indian animation is finally being recognized worldwide and Paperboat has played a small part in this. Paperboats’s core ideology “is to serve simplicity with sophistication”. What are the services rendered at your studio? Indian animation service industry is 25 years now. Can we confidently say, we can make in India to show the world? As artistes we could always do it. What we didn’t have then was an animation ecosystem. It is not enough to have designers and animators alone. We need to have animation producers, writers, animation thinkers really and most importantly animation viewers. Only then can the animation industry thrive. In the absence of all these, the big foreign studios came and gobbled us up! They trained our artistes to suit their styles and India ended up as a backend sweatshop destination. Sure, it gives jobs to thousands and that’s very important but I don’t think that helps the animation aesthetic in the country. I think it is important for us to build our own animation industry rather than being dependent on the big studios to offload their work on to us.
WE HAVE STARTED A NEW DIVISION CALLED OCCULT WHERE WE WILL FOCUS ONLY ON CUTTING EDGE VFX WORK. WE ARE TALKING TO PRESTIGIOUS UNIVERSITIES IN INDIA TO DEVELOP ANIMATION EDUCATION ACROSS INDIA. WE HAVE ALSO STARTED UTSIDE INC. A DESIGN INNOVATION COMPANY BASED OUT OF TORONTO 34
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India is one of the global clusters for animation service. Where do we go from now? What advantages do you see in India in providing offshore animation production services? Where do we excel in this space? The advantages are many. Firstly India has a pool of trained artistes. They are computer literate and proficient in English. Also, we can offer rates that very few in the world can offer. I do think that the government can play a big role here since it tick marks one of its main agendas; to create jobs. It should give tax cuts and other benefits so that this part of the animation industry enlarges exponentially. What’s the idea behind the creation of Paperboat Studios? Before Paperboat, there were only two kinds of animation studios in India. One, those large studios that did all the backend work for big foreign studios or then there were the others, which were mostly doing advertising or TV serials. We wanted to create a space where creativity and innovation is respected. Where directors can come and make their feature films in whatever style they envision. And because Paperboat is headed by artistes, the directors trust us. They know that their most precious child will be looked after well at Paperboat.
From the very conceptualization of an idea till the final screening copy is what we do at Paperboat. Ownership is very important for us. From story to screenplay and dialogues, from character design to all other pre-production, from animation to compositing and then the BG music and sound postproduction, we take care of all these at Paperboat. Of course, all clients don’t get all this done from us. For feature films especially the directors come with their own screenplays although for GGBB I have written the screenplay as well. Animation and IT sector evolved simultaneously in India. Indian IT has gone global, but animation/animation services hasn’t seen the same success. Do you think animation will have it glory in India in the coming years?
rather than animated images. I think the current generations have crossed that bridge. I do see exciting days ahead. How do you see new space and a media ecosystem opening up for animation in platforms like Netflix, Apple, Amazon Prime, YouTube... As I said earlier, our generation was never really exposed to animation. In my childhood I used to see perhaps one Disney film in two years. And then there were those wonderful Films Division shorts made by Bhimsain and Ram Mohan. Besides this, we had zilch exposure to animation. But since the late nineties after private satellite channels exploded on the scene, kids are growing up watching animation. It has now become a norm. In fact it is now a preferred medium. Other mediums like the memes, GIFs etc are adding to this whole new visual culture. Animation also lends itself easily to dubbing and hence crosses geographical/linguistic barriers easier than live-action. It is edgier, funnier, faster and more exciting. There is a hungry audience out there waiting for animation content and the platforms are already moving more and more towards that space. As we march to a new decade in a couple of months, what is your wish list to accomplish in the new decade beginning 2020?
I had made a film called Jajantaram Mamantaram in 2003. For the first time in an Indian feature we had 65 minutes of animation and VFX. Inspite of its huge commercial success it has taken India another 12 years to make a Bahubali in 2015!
Oh this is the most exciting period in our lives! We have started work on our next feature Kabuliwala, which is based on Tagore’s classic short story. We have some very exciting ongoing television projects with Discovery Kids and Sony Yay! We have started a new division called Occult where we will focus only on cutting edge VFX work. We are talking to prestigious universities in India to develop animation education across India. We have also started UtSide Inc. a design innovation company based out of Toronto.
I have always thought we Indians were very sluggish when it came to technology. Our generation was never really exposed to animation as a result of which, it was essentially a star driven generation. We preferred to see Bollywood stars
So quite a lot of exciting stuff is happening but the closest to our heart is our proposal of an animation school attached to a studio in Kashmir. We are very keen on this and we hope things work out very soon.
They know that their films will not be treated as just another job. They know that this is as big a passion for us as it is for them. You have created some of the feature films and finest animation IPs from India. What goes on your mind when you create product for others? Honestly, this word ‘others’ doesn’t exist for us. It is ‘us’. We are all in it together.
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Shilpa Ranade made her film Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiyaa with us. Then it was Anamika
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DQ ENTERTAINMENT @ MIPCOM STAND NO P-1.L20 SHABNAM
Jungle Book Season 3 Ready
Give an overview of Jungle Book’s global footprint? (or any other DQE property) The series has finished production of 3rd Season which is a testimonial to how successful the show is globally and the quality of the content that comes out from DQ. The Jungle Book has been broadcasted in more than 165 countries and has over 500 product categories ranging from Books, Apparels, Toys, Plush, Bags, Stationary, Pencils, Inflatables, Walkie-Talkies, Lollipops, Playing Cards, Beach Toys, Stickers, Puzzles etc in terms of merchandising. DQE works with some of the top European and American partners and collaborates with them. How is the landscape changing with the global digital takeover? Has OTT disturbed traditional broadcasting? What has been your experience? Do people continue to watch in linear mode? The rapid growth and changes happening in the digital space especially in the M&E sector is quite evident with major SVOD platforms beginning to produce content exclusively for their large global subscriber base apart from acquiring thousands of hours already produced content.
Manoj Mishra Chief Operating Officer DQ Entertinment
Indian animation studios are increasingly realising the need and the potential of 360 degree monetization by creating their own IPS. The Indian animation industry has proved its mettle in the global markets,” says Manoj Mishra, Chief Operating Officer, DQ Entertinment What are DQE’s objectives and priorities at MIPCOM 2019? Our primary focus during the market would be to meet broadcasters, OTT platform players and production studios from different regions of the world and our priority at MIPCOM this year will be to find reliable and strong broadcasters and also to explore potential for co-production partners for IPs that are ready for broadcast such as Jungle Book season 3, The Psammy show and Robin Hood season 2 among others and IPs in development such as Toadlly Awesome, Cuddle Cubbies and Scrambled. DQ Entertainment has been participating at REED Midem’s MIP Markets for over a decade. What’s it that excites you to be at MIPCOM?
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MIPCOM is one of the most important markets of the year for us where we get to meet new and potential buyers and producers. MIPCOM has always been a successful market for us where we have managed to collaborate with new studios on projects while also being able to do some good sales for us library of animated content. What are the DQE IP properties and projects currently on board? What’s driving DQE’s growth globally? Any new launches and new projects at MIPCOM? We have just completed the production of new IPs such as Jungle Book season 3, The Psammy show and RobinHood season 2. We are also looking out for new potential co-production partners for our IPs that are in development such as Toadlly Awesome, Cuddle Cubbies and Scrambled.
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Though the linear mode of viewing is still the dominant, this gap is rapidly shrinking and tilting towards the digital mode. This phenomenon is set to grow at a very rapid pace and we are sure that the digital segment will become a very dominant player in the M&E space soon. The production of original content exclusive for the streaming platforms has driven the digital content space quite aggressively in the recent past and this trend is expected to continue into the near future. India has recently signed co-production treaty with Russia. Do you see opportunities in India Russia collaboration? This is indeed a great development and we already have begun seeing the benefits of this collaboration. We have recently signed a co-development agreement with a big Russian production company for some of our shows which we shall disclose over the due course of time in future. We are sure that this will lead to more and more collaboration being formed in the future between producers from both the countries. What are the major trends driving the animation space? As you look at the challenges, what are the opportunities provided by the streaming platforms? Technology is driving the next wave of animation content production and viewing. The explosion of new outlets on cable, over-the-top and online digital platforms has created unprecedented opportuni-
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ties for animated content in a wide range of styles, genres and formats. These new developments have opened up the producers globally. Digital streaming platforms have breathed new life into the animation show business. Streaming networks are now are greenlighting animated shows oriented toward kids. The onset of the digital era has taken over the traditional media companies that once dominated kids programming in producing content and also reaching out to audiences. More and more producers are now making digital exclusive animated content for kids which has acted as a catalyst in the growth of the animation sector worldwide now. How has been 2019 for DQE and what do you look forward in 2020? 2019 has both been a year of challenges and exciting new developments for DQ. We have focused this year on the digital medium and have started witnessing good success in this space. Our YouTube Channel Power Kids TV has been growing at a tremendous rate and has managed to garner a subscription base of over 4 million in the last 4-5 months of our efforts in the platform. We plan to expand our digital distribution reach through different OTT channels in the near future. As mentioned above we are also developing new IPs which we are hopeful will go into production soon. There has been a resurgence in the state of Indian animation industry today? How do we take this forward? Indian animation studios are increasingly realising the need and the potential of 360 degree monetization by creating their own IPS. The Indian animation industry has proved its mettle in the global markets. We are now experiencing a global phenomenon of huge consumption patter in animated content, one of the reasons being people realising that animation travels better. With the way our live action Indian movies have been doing globally it only a matter of time we develop truly Indian animated IPs based on our own stories that have the potential in going global. There is demand for something which is Indian but needs to be presented for the global audience with better storytelling that every kid anywhere around the world can easily identify with. More and more producers now need to come forward to develop original Indian content to address each of these platforms and leverage is potential in reaching out to millions of viewers.
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DQ ENTERTAINMENT @ MIPCOM SHOWS FOR CO-PRODUCTION PARTNERS
THE JUNGLE BOOK SAFARI
SCRAMBLED
Duration: 26x12’ | Style: Hybrid (3D HD CGI & Live Action) | Genre: Edutainment | Target Demo: 5-9 yrs
Duration: 52x11’ | Style: 3D HD CGI | Genre: Fantasy Adventure | Target Demo: 6-9 yrs
Description: Mix “The Jungle Book” animation with real-life footages of animals in their natural habitat and you’ve got a format that ideally blends entertainment and information!
Description: Follow the egg-citing, climate-changefighting, tyrant-defeating adventures of Eggy and his friends in Refrigetora- where living breakfast creatures have their own awesome universe and a wild sense of humour!
TOADLLY AWESOME Duration: 52x11’ | Style: 3D HD CGI | Genre: Comedy, Adventure & Friendship | Target Demo: 6–9 yrs Description: Follow the adventures of racecar driving, skydiving, yodeling, and extreme minigolfing, hyperactive Toad and his two best friends, Mole and Ratty, in the world of Toadlly Awesome, where every day is a new adventure!
CUDDLE CUBBIES Duration: 78x7’ | Style: 3D HD CGI | Genre: Fantasy Adventure | Target Demo: 3-6 yrs Description: Six pre-schoolers with the ability to conjure “Cuddle Power” embark on extraordinary adventures and discover the joys of Learning, Team work and Friendship ! SHOWS FOR BROADCASTERS/ DIGITAL PLATFORMS
THE NEW ADVENTURES OF PETER PAN SEASON 1-2 Duration: 52x22’ | Style: 3D HD CGI | Genre: Fantasy Adventure | Target Demo: 5-9years Description: Joining the adventures of Peter Pan, are the new generation Wendy, Michael and John. Set in the timeless Neverland and 21st century London, it showcases the fight to save Neverland not only from evil Captain Hook but also from many more unimaginable evils that now inhabit the magical Neverland!
THE NEW ADVENTURES OF LASSIE Duration: 26x22’ | Style: 2D HD | Genre: Family, Adventure, drama | Target Demo: 6-9 years Description: The beloved and beautiful collie, Lassie takes a talking avatar for the first time ever in a dramatic, fun loving, emotional Show. Joining in is her human companion, Zoe Parker, whose hunger for adventure is as large as the Grand Mountain National Park!
THE PSAMMY SHOW
ROBIN HOOD SEASON 1-2
Duration: 52x11’ | Style: 3D HD CGI | Genre: Comedy Adventure | Target Demo: 5-9years
Duration: 104x11’ | Style: 3D HD CGI | Genre: Action Adventure | Target Demo: 5-9 yrs
Description: The Psammy Show follows the adventures and escapades of five children after they unearth and befriend a magical sand fairy who grants them one free wish every day. Amazing as it sounds the children however quickly realize that everything has a price….even if it is a FREE WISH!
Description: Young Robin and his friends stand up to Prince John’s whims in a fun show where fantastic action, magic and friendship combine to make a happy mix.
THE JUNGLE BOOK SEASON 1-3
Duration: 13x22’ | Style: 2D HD | Genre: Action Adventure | Target Demo: 6-9 yrs
Duration: 156x11’ | Style: 3D HD CGI | Genre: Comedy Adventure | Target Demo: 4-8 years Description: Rudyard Kipling’s most loved characters come to life in The Jungle Book. The stories narrate the escapades of the man cub Mowgli, who was raised in Indian jungle by a pack of wolves.
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MYSTERIES & FELUDA Description: Mysteries and Feluda is based on Satyajit Ray’s famous detective character Feluda. Ace detective Feluda and his friends Topshe & Jatayu with their dog Bones are ready and always gunning to bring down the most notorious criminals and solve their masterminded twisted crimes.
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10-10-2019 AM 11:43:54
RANA AND RIV’S WONDER FOREST
SUPER AUDIO @ MIPCOM STAND NO P-1.H66 P-1.J67
Twin brothers, Rana and Riv, go on adventures in a mystical forest with their friends and family. Format: Animated preschool television series Genre: Fantasy, supernatural, sci-fi Episodes: 10 Episodes x 13 Mins | Languages: Ready in English where magic is the way of life. Format: Animated preschool television series Genre: Fantasy | Episode: 22 min story | Languages: Ready in English
CHOTA SHARK Chota Shark (Baby Shark) is a funny, animated series that takes place at the bottom of the ocean, the home of our characters - CHOTA SHARK and his friend CRABO who tackle various situations created by HAMMY and his friend, ROBOT. Format: Animated preschool television series Genre: Comedy, Slapstick Episodes: 10 Episodes x 5 Mins Languages: No Voice Show
Kunal Daswani Director, Super Audio Madras
SUPER AUDIO: LICENSED TO THRILL
PRINCESS MIA Young princess Mia uses her magical powers to escape from the reality of boredom around the palace walls. Together with her imaginary friend Nandan, they sneak into the kingdom of Moon Shadow, where magic is the way of life. Format: Animated preschool television series Genre: Fantasy | Episode: 22 min story Languages: Ready in English
Tell us about the library catalogue of Super Audio.
the future of kids content moving to more SVOD services.
Super Audio Madras, which has developed three new animated that are targeted at preschoolers, is at MIPCOM to sell/license these shows. “We are also looking forward to understanding the pulse of the market and expanding our network of production houses,” says Kunal Daswani, Director, Super Audio Madras
Apart from the three new IP offerings, we create original content for children. The kind of content that will entertain, engage and educate audiences across the ages. We believe in using only the best talent for all our content. In our state-of-the-art studios, we create high-quality content that brings alive forgotten stories, revives traditional folklore, teaches stories from the Bible and Greek mythology and introduces a whole new generation to the magic of fairy tales and nursery rhymes.
What are the biggest challenges in the business today?
oping our own IPs as the market for generic kids content like nursery rhymes and fairy tales is saturated. In a short span of time, we have developed three new IPs designed to appeal to different audiences. Rana and Riv is a series about twin brothers with extraordinary abilities and their adventures in a magical forest, Chota Shark is a slapstick comedy without voices that’s designed to universally appeal to all ages and Princess Mia is a female-led fantasy show with the setting and styling based in India. As for growth priorities, we want to popularize our characters so we can explore licensing and merchandising.
What are your views on the current VOD and OTT platforms? How are audiences (especially kids) engaging with content?
What is your objective and focus at MIPCOM 2019? What will you be looking at MIPCOM? This year we have developed three new animated IPs which are targeted at preschoolers. Our main objective this MIPCOM is to sell/license these shows. Apart from this, we are also looking forward to understanding the pulse of the market and expanding our network of production houses. What are some of the new projects you are working on? Tell us some of the growth priorities of the company. This year our main focus was on devel-
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While video VOD & OTT market globally has entered into the growth phase, the Indian video OTT market is at a fairly nascent stage. Smartphones and Jio have initiated a new era of content consumption in India. For the past few years, YouTube has been dominating the kids content space but as parents are now aware of certain risks that come with AVOD platforms I see
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Getting your content discovered is one of the biggest challenges in the business today. With technology growing at such a rapid pace, now anyone can be a creator with even a little bit of effort. Since there is so much great content available online today it is difficult to get discovered and keep the audience engaged. Do you see still life for linear television programming -- especially in the kids segment? Linear TV is dying a slow death, especially in the kids segment. Kids have their favorite shows and characters and want to watch them on demand. How would you like to see your company grow in the next three to five years? Ideally, have a couple of popular IPs, invest in developing new shows & expand into more territories.
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10-10-2019 AM 11:43:55
WAM INDIA AT MIPCOM STAND NO P-1.H66, P-1.J67
What is your objective and focus at MIPCOM 2019? This year at MIPCOM our objective is to exhibit new IPs to the international market in order to generate interest for our product amongst buyers from all over the world (including India). We provide freshly created quality content for our younger audience across varied media platforms. What are some of the new projects you are working on? Tell us some of the growth priorities for WAM. We have an impressive line-up of new IPs this MIPCOM which includes the 3D animated avatar of the live action series JUNIOR G- a very popular and highly successful TV serial on Indian television that has been aired on approximately 12 TV channels in India in various languages. Further, we aim at introducing the concept of animated motion comics through our IPs which include the adventurous and magical stories of Arjun and Garuda, Zudora and Bhoot and Friends.Through the tales of our characters, we wish to create a world of Indian superheroes.
Aneesh Dev Director, Wide Angle Media Pvt Ltd
What is the state of Indian animation industry today? Capture some of the trends emerging out of India which are exciting?
CREATING A WORLD OF INDIAN
SUPER HEROES
In the next five years, if all goes well, then our existing library of nearly 500 live action movies titles in multiple genres would grow to 1000 titles and we would have created at least 10-12 new IPs in the kids space,” says Aneesh Dev, Director, Wide Angle Media 42
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Over the years, Indian animation industry has gained widespread acceptance and appreciation across borders. Indian animation companies have collaborated and worked with well-established production houses and created an international presence. With ever increasing demand for entertainment content in today’s time, there has been a significant growth in the demand for animated content as well- both domestically and internationally. The emerging trend in India suggests that TV channels are being proactive in developing interesting original IPs. Taking all these factors into consideration, we believe that the future of Indian animation is now and it looks brighter than it ever has. What are the three or four reasons why India has not be able to create a strong market for its own kids content? While Indian animation industry has a fantastic talent pool to create world class content and IPs, it faces certain challenges right from its inception. There is a heavy dependency on outsourcing work from overseas companies for their survival. There has been reasonable amount of demand
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from Indian audience for original Indian content and IPs, however, the demand for the same has been significantly lower from the broadcasters’ end up until 2-3 years ago. This is because most of the international broadcasters in India have been focused on dubbing and distributing their own foreign shows to monetize. The advertising budget spent in the kids genre in India is relatively low. Do you see good times for Indian kids content to expand global footprint? Give us some examples of why Indian animation content will excite overseas audience. Yes. You create a good product with quality that is at par with global players and the market will respond to you. In fact the market has never been hungrier for good content with broadcasters & OTT platforms having to cater to the fast increasing number of eye balls. Recently the popular kids series in India- Chotta Bheem franchisewas picked by Netflix which sparked interest amongst buyers in overseas market. It is fantastic that you have moved from a buyer to a producer and distributor? Tell us about your journey and how you have been able to manage this transition. WAMINDIA has been one of the major content aggregators of movies and kids content since the last 14 years. We have dealt in more than 700 movies and around 300 hours of kid’s content. Prior to this, we were full time producers of live action TV shows and LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK
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10-10-2019 AM 11:43:56
movies for almost 9 years. After producing around 32 live action TV shows across leading TV channels, we moved on to aggregation, distribution and licensing of content. A few years ago, we were the top producers of live action Kids shows and movies with big hit titles like Junior G (TV), Bhoot Unkle & Bhoot and Friends (Movies). We also distributed Pentamedia’s animation movies Pandavas, The legend Of Buddha, Alladdin amongst many other library titles. Our experience as producers enriches our understanding of the production aspect of the content and our vast experience in aggregation, distribution and licensing enables us to understand the requirements and demand of content on the broadcasters’ and other media platforms’ side. What are your views on the current VOD and OTT platforms? How are audiences (especially kids) engaging with content? One word that instantly comes to mind on hearing the term OTT is‘Future’. It is the rapidly growing present and definite future of all media platforms. With increasing access to smart phones and availability of high speed internet at affordable rates to the huge populations across geographies, the demand for videos has risen sky highand this is just the beginning. It is the most convenient media platform that is customized for individual demand and can be accessed anytime, anywhere. Every leading TV channel & digital content distribution company either already have or are in the process of developing their own OTT platforms.
is also the challenge of finding an appropriate buyer broadcaster / platform who would understand the potential for that content. Do you see still life for linear television programming -- especially in the kids segment? Linear television and broadcasting is a hardcore lifestyle amongst people- and not to forget, the heart and soul of advertising business. So it is safe to say that TV broadcasting is not going anywhere. The real question is, how well will it survive against the upcoming and growing VOD platforms? Digital media offers the tempting advantage of providing customized selection of content for consumers which can be viewed by them at their convenience- a strength that television can neither overlook nor overcome. As digital media takes over, it becomes tougher and tougher for TV broadcasters to maintain their market position. In India, majority of the children are still consuming content through traditional television viewing. However, it is only a matter of time before the trend switches. Second screens have already penetrated this segment and are gaining rapid popularity amongst children. Big players in the entertainment content industry are taking steps to tap into this high potential market. Disney has announced that it will be introducing its own SVOD platform. Even Discovery Kids launched its own animation series inspired by the movie ‘Singham’ and also acquired the rights of a kids showBandbudh and Budbak- from ZeeQ in order to capture their share of the market.
In fact OTT platforms are beginning to consider children as huge target markets with great potential. Most of the children use multiple digital mediums and spend a great deal of time on it nowadays. This trend isn’t lost upon the OTT platforms. You can take Netflix for instance. The OTT giant has its eyes set on exploring and providing quality content for children. It recently acquired StoryBots, a children’s story brand. Amazon Prime video has reportedly acquired the rights of Harry, an indigenous animation series. If that isn’t a clear indication towards growth in kids entertainment market, what else is?
How would you like to see WAM grow in the next three to five years?
What are the biggest challenges in the business today?
I personally admire Mr. Walter Elias Disney’s vision for the fabulous content he and his grand institution has made for the kids and family audience and the mega business value they have created out of creating content.
We believe that the biggest challenge in production is to narrate a story well and create good content for the target audience. There
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WAMINDIA targets to create and aggregate good engaging content while taking it to its target audience through the right channels and platforms. In the next five years, if all goes well, then our existing library of nearly 500 live action movies titles in multiple genres (like mass entertainment, action, comedy, horror amongst others) would grow to 1000 titles and we would have created at least 10-12 new IPs in the kids space. Who is your biggest influence/ influencer in driving WAM?
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10-10-2019 AM 11:43:57
INDIACAST AT MIPCOM STAND NO P1 E-73
CONTENT IS INDIACAST’S KEY ‘IndiaCast’ is India’s first multi-platform ‘Content Asset Monetization’ entity, jointly owned by Viacom18 & TV18. It has over 35,000 hours of content, available and adapted in over 135 countries, in more than 35 international languages. Here are top buys at MIPCOM For more details: Debkumar.dasgupta@indiacast.com
KESARRI NANDAN
GATHBANDHAN He is the quintessential local gangster, she aspires to be a tough cop! Raghu and Dhanak are worlds apart, but what happens when he falls in love with her at the very first sight? Production Year: 2019 • Category: Romance/ Family Drama • Episodes Commissioned: 260 X 30’ • Available in HD
Hanumant Singh is a staunch patriarch, whose only dream is to train his son to win a gold medal in the Olympics. But what happens when instead of his son, his daughter Kesarri, takes it on her to fulfil her father’s dream? Production Year: 2019 • Category: Family Drama • Episodes: 142 X 30’ • Available in HD
SILSILA
ISHQ MEIN MARJAWAN
Two best friends, one broken marriage, and a dangerously addictive affair! Follow the dramatic twists and turns in the lives of Mauli, her husband Kunal, and her best friend Nandini. Production Year: 2018 - 19 • Category: Romance • Episodes: 295 X 30’ • Season 1: 1-196 • Season 2: 197-295 • Available in HD
She had the perfect life, the perfect man but little did she know that she was walking into the perfect trap. What happens when the man you love turns out to be a genius manipulator? Production Year: 2017 - 19 • Category: Romance/ Thriller • Episodes: 494 X 30’ • Season 1: 1-224 • Season 2: 225-494 • Available in HD
VIDYA (THE ACCIDENTAL RAM SIYA KE LUV KUSH (SONS OF LORD RAM & SITA) The magnus opus show unearths the journey of Lord Ram and Goddess Sita through the lens of their sons, Luv and Kush and narrates how the sons become instrumental in bringing their estranged parents together. Production Year: 2019 (NEW LAUNCH) • Category: Costume Mythology • Episodes Commissioned: 260 X 30’ • Available in HD
BAHU BEGUM (WEB OF LOVE) Azaan returns to his royal family in India and receives a proposal to marry his childhood friend, Noor. However, things get complicated when he brings Shayra, the love of his life, with him. Production Year: 2019 (NEW LAUNCH) • • Category: Drama • Episodes Commissioned: 260 X 30’• Available in HD
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ENGLISH TEACHER) What happens when an uneducated army widow suddenly becomes an English teacher? An unexpected twist of fate leads Vidya to the most challenging phase of her life. Will she fulfill her wish of educating herself and the society? Will she be able to eradicate corruption from the education system? Production Year: 2019 (NEW LAUNCH) • Category: Family Drama • Episodes Commissioned: 260 X 30’ • Available in HD
CHHOTI SARDARNI (THE BRAVE HEARTED) Meher is coerced by her mother into marrying Sarabjeet, a widower with a 5 year-old child. But, much to her mother’s dislike, Meher is pregnant with her lover, Manav’s child. Can she stand up for her love and fight her own? Production Year: 2019 (NEW LAUNCH) • Category: Drama •Episodes Commissioned: 260 X 30’ •Available in HD
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10-10-2019 AM 11:44:14
ZEE AT MIPCOM STAND NO P-1 K51
CONTENT BUYS FROM ZEE ENTERTAINMENT ZEE GLOBAL CONTENT SALES is the licensing and syndication arm of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL). It has over 260,000 hours of Premium Content & 4800+ Movie Titles TELEVISION SHOWS Kundali Bhagya (DESTINED LOVE) Family Drama Kundali Bhagya is an intriguing story about two young girls Preeta and Shrishti. They discover the existence of their mother - Sarla and their sister Pragya, after the death of their father. Amidst this journey of mixed emotions the girl’s cross paths with two rich brothers, Rishabh and Karan. The story will then introduce romance, drama and dispute in the lives of Preeta, Shrishti, Rishabh and Karan.
Deceptive Measures (PAVITRA RISHTA) Family Drama The story revolves around a middle-class girl, who is not highly educated and yet handles her house impeccably. Everyone is dependent on her however it is only her brother and her mother who really value her. Her mother has a sole aim of finding a good alliance for her daughter. The series has been filmed across Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria and the first season runs 52 one-hour episodes.
Tujhse Hai Raabta (COSMIC CONNECTION) Family Drama The story revolves around the bittersweet relationship between a daughter and her stepmother, who are forced to live together after a tragedy strikes in the family.
Guddan Tumse Na Ho Payega (THE RELATIONSHIP CONUNDRUM) Family Drama It is a light-hearted story of a 20-year old girl, Guddan, who having bumbled and
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ZEE GLOBAL CONTENT SALES offers a wide array of content in multiple languages including Hindi and English, covering all genres: Romantic, Family, Thriller and Historic Dramas; Reality and Formats; Lifestyle and Fitness Programmes including Nutrition, Cooking, Fitness and Beauty; Scripted Comedy; Kids; Adventure and Travel along with Motivational Real Life Stories. Additionally, we offer original content across movies and television shows with a choice of dubbed or subtitled versions in many foreign languages. For more details contact: Ms. Vibha Chopra – Business Head – Global Syndication & Intl Film Distribution vibha.chopra@zee.esselgroup.com fumbled through most of her life and being told by her own family that she can barely get one thing right, finds herself becoming India’s youngest mother in law to three older daughters-in-law by a quirk of circumstances.
FILMS (HINDI) Gully Boy: (2019) Indian Hindi language Musical Drama, directed by Zoya Akhtar Inspired by the lives of Indian street rappers, Divine and Nazey, the film is coming of age story about a street rapper from the Dharavi slums of Mumbai.
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Raazi: (2018) Indian Hindi Language Spy Thriller, directed by Meghna Gulzar This is a story of an undercover RAW agent who is married into a Pakistani family by her father to acquire valuable piece of information about the enemy.
Kesari: (2018) Indian Hindi Language Action war Film, directed by Anurag Singh Kesari is a true story about one of the bravest battles fought in India ‘The Battle Of Saragarhi’, in which an army of 21 Sikhs fought against 10,000 Afghans in 1897. This is a story of Havildar Ishar Singh, a soldier in the British Indian Army, who leads the battle that unfolds the greatest last-stand in military history.
Article 15: (2019) Indian Hindi Language Crime Drama, directed by Anubhav Sinha The film deals with Article 15 of the Constitution of India, which prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.
Dream Girl: (2019) Indian Hindi Language Comedy Drama, directed by Raaj Shaandilyaa This film is a complete family entertainer coupled with a love story that deals
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with one trying to win the heart of another and is one of the quirkiest comedies of the year.
Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare / Dolly Kitty And Those Twinkling Stars: (2019) Indian Hindi Language Comedy Satire Film, directed by Alankrita Shrivastava The World Premiere will be held at the upcoming 24th Busan International Film Festival in the month of October, 2019. The film is helmed by the makers of renowned film, ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ and is all set to push the same space with more fun, humor, frolic and a context that will engage and entertain in equal measure.
Manikarnika - The Queen of Jhansi: (2019) Indian Hindi Language Period Drama, directed by Radha Krishna Jagartamudi and actress Kangana Ranaut This film is based on the life of Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi who fought against the British East India Company, during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The makers of the film hosted a special screening for the President of India (Ram Nath Kovind) at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the President felicitated the artistes of the film prior to its official release in theatres.
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10-10-2019 AM 11:44:20
LEGAL ASPECTS OF CONTENT & COPYRIGHT
ISSUANCE OF VPL IN INDIA The mechanism of Video Performance Licensing is explicitly backed by legislation subject to registration by Central Government of India which is crucially imperative for augmenting IP creation, to generate employment across India and to increase foreign exchange by having reciprocal arrangement with overseas Copyright societies — By Shekhar Mennon
Shekhar Mennonv Advocate
P
roducers of Cinematograph Film work , produces numerous Films / videos and the Copyright emerging thereto from bundle of copyrights are commercially utilised in various platforms but surprisingly the exclusive right of “communication the film to the public” as given under Section 14(d)(iii) never being collected by any Cinematograph Film Registered Copyright Society pursuant to Section 33 of the Copyright Act 1957. For instance, communication to public of Cinematographic Films are those that are shown in various categories of Hotels which all of them have TV sets in rooms, Restaurants , Cables, OTT platforms etc which squarely falls under the definition of communication to the public u/s 2 (ff) of the Copyright Act 1957.
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pickle entertainment biz guide
pickle october mipcom 2019 issue_091019_06.30am.indd 50-51
Shekhar Mennon is a Media Lawyer and has gained vast experience and exposure in legal, business and strategic functions from the content, entertainment , information industries and Copyright Societies. His specilaises in media and IPR protection. He currently is an Advocate practicing in the Bombay High Court as well as in Supreme Court of India. He can be reached at shekharmennon@medialexicon.com
Further astounded with the facts , that the collections have not been done by “Owners” of Cinematograph Film inspite of the Copyright Amendment in 1994 in Chapter VII “Copyright Societies”. However , interestingly in Copyright Amendment 2012, Chapter VII on Copyright Societies read with Chapter XI of Copyright Rules 2013 enlarged the scope by adding “Authors” and “Other Owners” for the administration of Registered Copyright Societies. Author of the Cinematograph Film work ( herein the derivative work) is the Producer as defined under section 2(d)(v) of Copyright Act 1957 and the term “Producer” is also defined under Section 2(uu) of the Copyright Act 1957.
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COMMUNICATION Provided further that the business of or granting license in respect TO PUBLIC OF issuing of literary, dramatic, musical and arCINEMATOGRAPHIC tistic works incorporated in a cinefilms or sound recordings FILMS ARE THOSE THAT matograph shall be carried out only through a ARE SHOWN IN VARIOUS copyright society duly registered unCATEGORIES OF HOTELS der this Act. WHICH ALL OF THEM In this context , the movement by Film HAVE TV SETS IN Producers have started in 2018 and necapplications in connection thereROOMS, RESTAURANTS essary to have been filed with Central Govern, CABLES, OTT ment pursuant to the requirement of PLATFORMS ETC WHICH Section 33 of the Copyright Act 1957. SQUARELY FALLS UNDER THE DEFINITION JUSTIFICATION OF HAVING OF COMMUNICATIONTO REGISTERED COPYRIGHT THE PUBLIC SOCIETY FOR VIDEO PERFORMANCE LICENSING.
But on the contrary, the derivative right Sound recording works have been continuously collected by Registered copyright society PPL (Phonographic Performance License) , which is defunct from 2013 , on the exclusive right given under Section 14(e)(iii). Herein too, the Author of the Sound Recording work is the Producer as defined under section 2(d)(v) of Copyright Act 1957. Thus both , Cinematograph Film work (which includes Video) and Sound recording work are two distinct derivative copyright and it’s defined pursuant to Section 2(f) and Section 2(xx) respectively read with Section 2(y)(ii) & (iii) , Section 13(b) & (c ) and Section 14 (d) & (e) of Copyright Act 1957 and technically, for both the work((s) whether it’s Cinematograph Film work or Sound recording Work, only a Copyright Society duly Registered by Central Government subject to such conditions as may be prescribed pursuant to Section 33 of Copyright Act 1957 can issue Business license and for both “Works” , Producers have equal share. Strictly in accordance with law, inclusion of specific Proviso in the Copyright Amendment 2012 is more critical and with effect from 21 June 2012 a new provision (second proviso) have been added in Section 33 wherein its mandatory that business of issuing or granting license in respect shall be carried out only through a copyright society duly registered under this Act particularly empowering the Central Government pursuant to section 33 (3) of the Copyright Act, 1957. Newly added second Proviso have been enumerated herein below :
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pickle entertainment biz guide
Copyright legislation introduced Section 33 in Chapter VII “ “Copyright Societies” in Copyright Act 1957 from 1994 Amendment and recently the Copyright Amendment 2012, primarily with the legislative intention which is the most practical way for Copyright owners , authors and users to exercise the rights under single window concept. Increasingly, “Copyright Societies” have become most realistic and practical way across the world to exercise many of the rights on reciprocal arrangements by the Berne convention members ( and India being the member) with foreign societies for licensing and royalty sharing. The Copyright societies make the Copyright system more effective and efficient to promote the dissemination of works of the country which is the chief aim of the Copyright legislation so that the works are available to the public and in principle it operates for the benefit of PUBLIC CONVENIENCE. Further most importantly, having Video Performance licensing will be utmost beneficial to the Film Producers being the Authors of Cinematograph Film & Sound recoding Work(s) , who can now get 50% from Video licensing and 50% from Sound recoding license, despite of assigning all the copyrights with negative rights in perpetuity to the other Owners , which in turn from the proceeds received , the said Producers can regenerate the Intellectual Property more for public benefit. Last but not the least ,employment generation will come immediately on registering the copyright Societies in India and with reciprocal arrangements with foreign Societies the opportunities in the digital era will be immense besides gain to the exchequer on direct /indirect taxes both in domestic currency and foreign exchange. LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK
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10-10-2019 AM 11:44:27
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
W
e are delighted to present the latest issue of Pickle on the special occasion of MIPCOM at Cannes. This is our 13th edition of Pickle for the REED Midem’s MIPCOM market. Undoubtedly, this is the finest in the global media markets that empowers delegates to network with the best business minds, capture emerging trends, listen to masterminds, create business for product and services and think innovation. It is a must attend for decision makers to grasp the new ecosystems in the media business. For the last two years, Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC), set-up by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India has been putting together Indian Pavilion at MIPCOM facilitating Indian M&E companies to benefit from MIPCOM. Over 115 Indian media companies and 250 delegates are at MIPCOM with a clear objective to collaborate and co-create content with global delegates at MIPCOM. Collectively, Indian companies are at MIPCOM with over 100 IPs (completed and indevelopment). SEPC has also brought out India IP Guide. Do collect your India IP Guide at the India Pavilion (P1.B2).
We have an insightful interview with Biren Ghose, Country Head, Technicolor India. October 2019 marks a decade of Technicolor India and completion of two decades of Biren’s leadership in the Indian media and entertainment sector. Today, Technicolor India employs over 6,000 people serving the global animation, VFX, gaming and advertising sector from Bangalore. We are confident that the new decade will open up a whole gamut of digital media services out of India. And, we are optimistic that Technicolor increase their employee count to 50,000 in the new decade. The Indian media ecosystem is changing fast. The Over-the-Top (OTT) space is gaining attraction in the Indian market with the presence of Hotstar, Voot, ErosNow, ZEE5, Sony Liv, ALT Balaji, Sun Nxt, Amazon Prime and Netflix are expanding and growing the marker in India. Our forthcoming November issue is focused on the American Film Market. Do drop in a line to get connected in the Indian M&E business. Feel free to email your thoughts and suggestions.
n vidyasagar pickle media nat@pickle.co.in, www.pickle.co.in
Pickle Volume XIII 2nd edition Published by Pickle Media Private Limited Email: natvid@gmail.com O Mumbai O Chennai No.2, Habib Complex Dr Durgabhai Deshmukh Road RA Puram CHENNAI 600 028
Printed by Bon Graphics New #7, Arumugam Nagar, Dayalan Garden, Chinna Porur, Chennai – 600 116 Mobile: +91 9884816263 Email: bon_graphics@yahoo.co.in
Senior Editor: Vivek Rathnakar Editorial Coordinators : M Sai Design Editor: Jose J Reegan Photo Editor: K K Laskar Email: natvid@gmail.com
For advertising: natvid@gmail.com / pickle@pickle.co.in
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Pickle Business Guide 2019 Copyright 2019 by Pickle Media Pvt Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Pickle is an ad supported business guide tracking the filmed entertainment business in India.
pickle entertainment biz guide
pickle october mipcom 2019 issue_091019_06.30am.indd 52
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10-10-2019 AM 11:44:29