The Hindu : Front Page : Indian animators go to town

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Thursday, Jan 03, 2008
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Indian animators go to town

Katie Allen

BBC children’s series confirms India is centre of animation

London: India has long been known as an outsourcing hub for call centres and computer support. Now a BBC children’s series will cement its position as a global centre for animators.

With a £10 million budget, India-animated Freefonix is one of the BBC’s biggest ever animation projects. The futuristic tale of mismatched musicians was two years in the making across three continents and involved more than 200 people.

The Bollywood-BBC tie-up is the first of many, according to the series’ U.K.-based producers Cinnamon Entertainment. Managing director Anthony Bouchier says more readily available funding and skilled animation teams are drawing TV show-makers to India.

“We saw that there were opportunities not only to outsource but to actually get investment for animation out of India. In the U.K. there is a major problem with animation for children because the broadcasters do not have sufficient budgets to finance animation, so it all has to come from private sources,” he says.

Mr. Bouchier believes that the 40-episode series launching on Friday, is the first of its kind for the 7-11 age group. “The BBC are involved in some very exciting projects and the majority of those are financed out of India. India is coming to the rescue of BBC animation.”

Cinnamon is part of a new breed of media companies specialising in making the most of tax breaks and subsidies available in various countries. Created by Magnus Fiennes, brother of Joseph and Ralph, Freefonix was financed with funding from sources including Indian private equity investment, The Isle of Man Film Fund and the BBC.

The scripts were written in the U.S. and the U.K., the voices were recorded in the U.K., the music and general production work was done in the U.K. and the Isle of Man and then a team in Paris modelled the characters and backgrounds.

The whole thing was then sent to Thiruvananthapuram, where it was animated. The final post-production was done in Ireland.

Freefonix is testament to the way the production process for animation projects has been revolutionised by the internet, which allows teams in various countries to swap files instantly and to communicate on videolink services such as Skype. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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