• Girish Dhakephalkar works with Realtime Worlds, a gaming company based in Scotland. He is interested in making games for the Indian market with Indian content and after studying the market in India, he finds Pune the ideal place to work.

Theirs are not isolated stories as Pune fast emerges as a hub for the animation and gaming industry. In less than one year, about 30 companies and studios dealing in special effects and animation have sprung up in the city, along with a string of training academies.

The arithmetic is simple: while it costs around $400,000 to make a 30-minute animated film in the US, in Pune it can be made for one-seventh the amount.

“What the IT industry achieved in 11 years in Pune — a business of $5 billion per year — the animation and gaming industry is expected to achieve in six,” says a study by the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (MACCIA). It has already started talking to some real estate developers to start Special Economic Zones for the industry.

According to Nasscom, the Indian animation industry was estimated at $354 million in 2006 and is expected to reach $869 million by 2010. The Indian gaming industry was estimated at $48 million and is expected to cross $424 million by 2010.

It’s not just the offshore gaming and animation studios which are Pune-bound. Anirights Infomedia, a Reliance Entertainment company, has also joined the rush.

According to Anand Khandekar, Chairman, Animation and Gaming Committee, MACCIA, Pune has all the right ingredients because of its history and culture, combined with its IT strengths and its educational institutions.

Dhakephalkar adds another factor: “Pune’s proximity to Mumbai, which is the entertainment hub of the country”.

“A company like Electronic Arts, one of the largest companies in the gaming sector with a turnover of $50 billion, is thinking of shifting its base to Pune. This itself tells the potential of Pune to grow in this sector. It has made us start our institute here,” says Ashok Kolaskar, Managing Director of the DSK International Institute of Industrial Design, Animation and Gaming, set up in collaboration with Supinfocom Group of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Valenciennois (CCIV), France.

“The industry is not only about how much technical knowledge you have, but also about how creative you are. Pune is the place where you can find students having both these qualities,” adds Vishakha Agarwal, vice-president of the Sumeru Academy of Digital Arts, which started operations in Pune recently.

Somil Gupta, managing director of the Mumbai-based Trine Animation, which is setting up a studio in Pune soon, says that with the continuous flow of computer science students, it is easier to get a workforce in Pune. “The strong cultural base of the city provides you good creative artistes. We look at it as a value addition as this industry not only needs technocrats but creative minds too,” he adds.

The plans to set up a government training institute in Pune is expected to further hasten the pace.

Recently, there has also been talk of collaborations with Canadian animation, gaming and visual effects companies, some of which sent over representatives recently for talks with their Indian counterparts.