With the vast experience and expertise you have in the animation and digital space what‘s your take on current and future trends? Are they playing out the way you thought they would 5 years ago? And what are the things that have impressed you the most in the last couple of years?
Many companies begun to place a bet some 6 or 7 years ago that India was going to be a player in the animation space. This company made a similar start 7 years ago in that same vein. Technicolor came in 3 years ago to take this start- up to the next level and build that vision. Also to take this company from a relatively small group to a very large animation presence in Bangalore. I believe that in the last few years, India and the animation business here has come to the global stage with work that is of better quality than anywhere else. I truly believe that the work coming out of Technicolor‘s facility in India is world class. Changing the name of this facility from Paprikaas to Technicolor India is a significant part of the global plan for Technicolor which is a company in the entertainment industry for 97 years. We believe that entertainment media, for the next 100 years, will be based on content creation, character animation, visual effects and the hub of that business for this company will be here in this facility in Bangalore.
That‘s awesome! So you are going to focus more and more on this facility working along with other facilities?
Correct! The way we look at our business structure is that each one of our facilities is a part of the whole. Over the last year my focus has been to integrate all our entities into one company with an agreed mission. One company that has a global pipeline, there are no other companies anywhere that seamlessly ensure high end CG and VFX workflow as efficiently regardless of geographical location. We absolutely have the same toolsets here in Technicolor India as we do in MPC London, Vancouver & LA! We have moved people from London to start training people in Bangalore and vice versa. We will be moving our top artists and top producers globally to work with each of our key clients/ partners. This is because when they are working on the same tool sets and on the same projects they can work as if they are in the same building rather than in a different continent.
It‘s modular, yet seamless?
Yes, it is seamless. The only disruption is time! There is only so much one can maximize across time zones! Back in LA I do have an interesting morning where I am speaking to London at 7 or 8 o‘ clock in the morning and I‘m speaking to Bangalore at 7 or 8 o‘ clock at night and somewhere in between I‘m talking to Vancouver and LA and New York, so my days have extended dramatically by working in a global company and I seem to be traveling a lot more in this job than I did when I worked in a company that had all of the artists under one roof. Now the advantage of having all the artists globally is that there is a gigantic global talent pool that we can choose from rather getting everybody to LA! I think the disadvantages of any travel compulsions are insignificant compared to the advantages to our clients and service edge as a company. We work when people sleep and deliver our product when they are awake taking advantage of this same timing challenge. We make it seamless!!
So this vision of the digital content spectrum includes animation to visual effects to gaming to broadcast?
Across the board we are trying to build a very deep and broad business. We have large and deep bench strength of television animation and DVD animation business. We also have a very wide set of businesses that are connected which include visual effects, gaming, compression and authoring. The goal for Technicolor is to consolidate a lot of our businesses where it makes sense, so when I say in the very beginning Technicolor is looking at this facility as one of the primary hubs, not just as a visual effects or an animation facility, but as a creative company that allows us to take artists, great technicians, superior managers and combine them to the business of creating content.
What are the current projects that Technicolor India is working on?
We are currently working on Kung Fu Panda that will be aired the coming fall, it‘s a spectacular show, the depth and detail of those characters are convincing and I am certain that people would want to watch it again and again. We look forward to consolidate a strong team here, which will facilitate the artists to learn the Nickelodeon process. The supervisors and leads of the Nickelodeon team in Bangalore will work closely with the Nickelodeon team in Los Angeles to learn their processes; how teams function and so on. We have formed a similar relationship with our own company MPC. We have started a cross pollination with Nickelodeon; DreamWorks and MPC where we place our people ‘in‘ the setup of the client/partner. They will indeed learn from this experience and share their insights with the team here in Bangalore, but what is more important is what they leave behind. We always learn from the production entity, but sometimes what the international production entity learns from us is probably far greater than what we brought back with us.
Today, 100% of Nickelodeon‘s TV series done in India are being done at Technicolor India facility. No other facility in India will be working on any Nickelodeon shows as no other facility in India will be working on any DreamWorks projects. This is a testimony to the quality and pedigree of the team in the company and the leadership we demonstrate in India‘s emerging market.
What if Nickelodeon is working with an Indian studio for its Indian feed?
The shows we are working on are on Nickelodeon, not on Nick Junior, Nick Toons or Nick India. Their entire future slate has been assigned for overseas animation production to our facility. They believe in our company; and our studio team and artists and therefore are convinced that they should not split their work between 5 to 6 different local companies. International companies have learnt by experience that competition between studios has created unhealthy talent ‘poaching‘. Studios are known by the projects they work on and people who work on the best projects inevitably have the best future.
I love the Nickelodeon shows and I am honored that we are working with Nickelodeon on these shows.Nickelodeon will of course still work with other facilities around the world, globally. But the majority of their work will be done here, and the sole Indian company working on the Nickelodeon shows will be Technicolor India. So if an artist wants to work in India on quality Nickelodeon shows, of the pedigree and stature of Kung Fu Panda, Penguins of Madagascar, Fanboy and Chum Chum our company is the studio of choice for them. We are growing not just on the shows that are with Nickelodeon, we also continue to have a strong relationship with DreamWorks and a strong relationship with Electronic Arts. MPC our established VFX brand shares an extremely strong relationship with Technicolor India with dedicated pipeline of work being placed here.