“We at NVIDIA feel that India is going to be the nucleus of the digital content creation universe and as such we want to have a catalyzing effect on the growth of this ecosystem”
Its a gold rush!
Not yet, but that`s the future prediction for India in the digital content universe!
NVIDIA, the global graphics Giant has great conviction in India. The company has put its best foot forward and has made a commitment to catalyse the growth of the Indian CG and DCC industry through its Digital Bollywood initiative.
The company`s top brass accompanied by leading Hollywood VFX Gurus as well as Scientists were here in India during the launch of the initiative. Even as the entire NVIDIA team was in the midst of multiple meetings, activities and was in the throes of a hectic schedule, NVIDIA Sr. Vice President Dan Vivoli met up with Animation Xpress.com Editor Anand Gurnani to share NVIDIA`s strategy and perspective on India as the Centre of the future digital content universe.
Gurnani was also previleged to get some comments from the other members of the NVIDIA high level team including Jeff Brown, VFX Guru Volker Engel and Silicon Valley bigwig Ashfaq Munshi
Excerpts…
Please share with us the NVIDIA India strategy and Digital Bollywood?
Dan Vivoli: Our India strategy has been shaping up for a while now. Every passing day, India is gaining great significance at NVIDIA and that reflects in the fact that one out of every eight NVIDIANs is from India. Around three years ago, we first identified that there was an enormous amount of talent in India, which we wanted to include into our talent pool. We already had a Bangalore office and earlier this year that intention of including Indian talent resulted in the inauguration of our Pune design centre where we recruited a few hundred top of the league engineering students. Their work has gone into the latest motherboard we have designed for Intel, which is universally rated as amongst the world`s best.
Even as we understand and appreciate the high level of engineering brains and talent in India, we also witness that the Indian entertainment industry is increasingly going higher up the value chain in terms of quality, finesse and production management. Hollywood is extremely interested in India, the world is interested in India.
We at NVIDIA feel that India is going to be the nucleus or the centre of the digital content creation universe and as such we want to have a catalyzing effect on the growth of this ecosystem.
Our Initiative, `Digital Bollywood` is a result of the conviction we have in India and its future role in the digital content universe.
Please elaborate on what Digital Bollywood is going to be about? What are its features?
Dan Vivoli: Digital Bollywood is about Technology, Education, Partnership & Ecosystem and Expertise.
On the technology front, we have and are continuously increasing our investments into India in terms of resource as well as talent. Unlike many Silicon Valley companies, the NVIDIA approach to technology is that we first look at our users, the problems, challenges and bottlenecks they face and then use our highly focused research teams to find solutions and create products. We are looking at the Indian market and are finding solutions to their needs. Amongst the many solutions is the dual version launch of gelato, where we also freeware downloads. We recognize that the solution has to be accessible and must reach a lot of the community and one way of achieving that is by making it free. Free is a great price for a 17 year old youngster with a creative mind to incentivise him to download gellato and to use the solution. We have had 70,000 downloads of gelato in India so far!
On the Education front, we are working as a neutral body with no conflict of interest to stake holders and are coming up with courseware and curriculum for the digital production, VFX, CG and animation disciplines. The courseware is going to be available to one and all and to everyone intending to use it to help teach in a better way. Whistling Woods International and MAAC are two of the institutes that will be using the courseware.
We are also starting a series of multi city lectures by experts from all across the world. There will be five cities that we shall cover every month and we shall have a new lecture every month, the total tally being 60 in a year. The first one begins this December and shall feature Andy Daffy. We also have experts from Digital Domain and Industrial Lights & Magic lined up to come and lecture Indian professionals and students.
In terms of community, we are working with all the major portals and media in this space. We also have our portal which is where we want to drive the community to. We also plan to sponsor and fund events by the neutral bodies which are aimed at developing communities and same for online portals and other media in this space.
As regards expertise, the plan is to have experts, scientists and researchers from NVIDIA to constantly be visiting India and assisting and providing counsel to Indian studios.
We are very interested in building this Indian ecosystem.
“With Internet and other technology being the way it is and the cost to use and access the technology being so within reach, it is very much possible to work with talent from across the world and I do believe India has a lot of potential”
It would be nice to know about Volker Engel`s views too
Volker Engel: I have a very radical approach to VFX production which means that I have produced VFX shots for nearly one sixth or lesser the usual cost even while maintaining the highest quality levels. Part reason why Unchartered Territory (Volker`s Company) has been able to do this is because we work with passionate talented artists and studios from across the world including India. There have been quite a few Indian artists and teams that I have worked with and Filaments Visual Effects (Amit Dharwal) and The Sign (Shantanu Jahagirdar) are a couple of studios that I have worked with on the Emmy Award winning The Triangle.
We have farmed out a lot of modeling and texturing work, but make it a point to ensure that the compositing is done at LA in front of our eyes. Yes, in LA too we recruit top talent from across the world.
With Internet and other technology being the way it is and the cost to use and access the technology being so within reach, it is very much possible to work with talent from across the world and I do believe India has a lot of potential and that`s one of the reasons why I am here.
There is news about some great Q3 results for NVIDIA?
Dan Vivoli: Absolutely, the Q3 results are US$ 821 million in revenues and the business sure is good. I credit this too the unflinching focus that our company has on graphics technology. Between 1993 when we were established and now, we have sold around 500 Million Graphics processors and cards and that`s a lot of them! This quarter we have also made the milestone of becoming the world`s no 1 company for graphics for laptops as well.
The result of our focus and leadership reflect in our earnings too. I remember joining the company in 1997 which was probably the last year when NVIDIA had to face rocky times. In 1998, we boomed at that time the revenue was $28 million for the year. Now in `06 it is 3 billion a year. We were 80 people then and now we are 4000 people. Earlier, the `people to turnover` ratio was very high and its getting lower of late. We are hiring a lot of people.
What are your views on working with Indians?
Dan Vivoli: India has a very vast broad diversified culture. There are genius engineers and there are natural story tellers. There is such an inbuilt thing about narrating stories it is such a prominent part of your culture. There are a lot of well educated people and India has the perfect ingredients for success. It s a diverse community but a lot of effort has to be put in for India to reach its potential.
Ashfaq Munshi: I think we have a very strong technical base couple that with creative talent and the potential is fabulous. Even artistically and in terms of the sensibilities the Indian perspective is much more aligned with what western countries would find than in say China and that bridges the gap. that enables us to catch up with India. There`s a lot of dynamics that make India unique.
What are the technical challenges facing NVIDIA?When trying to come up with solutions specifically for the Indian market?
Dan Vivoli: It is great that we can make tools which are usable. It is a challenge for us to make a tool which can be downloaded, then be used intuitively without much difficulty. That is a challenge we love. And in India this problem gets amplified even more as the solution has to work effectively on low cost hardware device.
What would be your message to our readers, a communication from NVIDIA to readers of Animation Xpress i.e the entire Indian DCC ecosystem?
Dan Vivoli:I`m excited about working in India. Bollywood is breaking new barriers the world over and bringing new economic dynamics to the cost structure of film making globally, even while achieving high quality standards. The quality aspiration and passion of Bollywood (We mean the Indian entertainment industry) is something that resonates perfectly with the NVIDIA philosophy and approach. We have a deep passion for Graphics and Visual processing and NVIDIA is eagerly looking forward to Digital Bollywood!
Watch out forthcoming issues for for exclusive interviews with
– NVIDIA`s Dr Larry Gritz
– Silicon Valley Big Wig Ashfaq Munshi