Animation, gaming industry gets a new address: Pune

• 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.

“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...