The Hindu Business Line : `Animation edge? Bangalore has IT too!'

`Brand Bangalore' may be the best for information technology. It may even claim a large chunk of the bio-technology business. But twice is not enough.

Now, the city has staked its claim to be taken seriously as a strong contender in the emerging space being called entertainment technology.

The first-ever gathering last week, of the Association of Bangalore Animation Industry (ABAI) — a body just two months old and about 17 players strong — saw a turnout running into hundreds, of young creative artists and technology whizkids.

And in the process, challenging the position held by centres such as Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.

It was a day-long showcase of the skills and talents brewing in a city, whose `animated' products were fuelling the entertainment industry, in India and abroad.

Fresh from its triumph at the recently concluded Digicon Festival in Japan, where its flash animation product `The Bad Egg' took the Outstanding Performance Prize, the creative team behind the short film made by the city's largest animation player, Anirights Infomedia, took a bow, to standing ovation — and a memento at the hands of noted film maker Subhash Ghai.

The Nasscom's Regional Director (Mumbai), Mr Rajiv Vaishnav, presented numbers to show that the Asia Pacific would remain the world's fastest growing market for animation products and a major part of the $111 billion global animation and gaming outsourcing opportunity.

Could some of this be sucked in by Bangalore's burgeoning animation business?

"We have the critical mass now", claims the ABAI President, Mr Suparno Choudhuri. The first ABAI Fest clearly saw no limits to how much it could take of the global animation cake.

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`Animation edge? Bangalore has IT too!'