Animation, gaming: Pune gears up for boom time

With the state government coming out with an IT policy that lays special emphasis on the animation and gaming industry last Friday, private educational institutes have begun introducing courses for animators. Not without reason. Pune is gearing up to witness $5 billion worth of business from animation and gaming in the next five years. It had taken the entire IT sector in the city as much as 11 years to generate a similar volume of business.

The new IT policy makes special mention of animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) with an assurance from the state government that it will set up a development centre to provide the infrastructure backup. This will include studio, art gallery and animation film production facilities. The policy also talks of setting up animation and gaming parks on the lines of software parks.

Maratha Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA), that had lobbied for the inclusion of animation and gaming in the IT policy, is convinced this is the new boom sector. "Pune has already taken a lead in this sector. Now, with a proper policy in place, it will help develop other cities like Nashik, Aurangabad and Nagpur," said Anand Khandekar, chairman of MCCIA subcommittee, on animation and gaming.

Pune has reasons to cheer as it already has good studios and at present a few are even collaborating with international studios like Dreamworks to work on international projects. "Companies like Big Entertainment and Anibrain with manpower of over 100 experts are working on international projects. A lot of work is coming to Pune as the cost involved is less," Khandekar said.

Kedar Nigvekar, managing director of SeamEdu, that offers full-fledged courses in animation and gaming, agrees. "Work is coming to Pune as it has quality manpower available though in limited number. Much more is to be done in this area though, as now the challenge is to develop skilled manpower to meet the growing demand," he said.

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