* India-based animators' revenue grew 13 pct year-on-year
* More Hollywood demand spurring growth
* Studios looking at boosting local demand
By Nivedita Bhattacharjee
MUMBAI, Oct 13 (Reuters) - They call themselves Hollywood's
best-kept secret: India's animators, long-time partners for the
likes of Walt Disney Co DIS.N , are reaping the rewards of
surging demand for visual effects and gaining the confidence to
venture out on their own.
India's animation industry generated revenue worth 44.9
billion rupees ($675.7 million) in 2014, a 13 percent increase
from the previous year, according to data from a FICCI-KPMG
report on India's media and entertainment industry.
The industry is expected to double in size to 95.5 billion
rupees within five years, as Hollywood studios tap a large pool
of low-cost, English-speaking animators who are familiar with
Western culture.
So far, animators based in India have created crowd scenes
and props for the Emmy award-winning TV series "Game of Thrones"
as well as more prominent visual effects for films including
Disney's 2014 Angelina Jolie movie "Maleficent" and Dreamworks
Animation's DWA.O "How to Train Your Dragon", among other
Hollywood hits.
"We are one of those best kept secrets. We do all this
amazing work and no one knows about it," said Biren Ghose, who
runs the Indian subsidiary of U.S. firm Technicolor, which
includes the India-based animation units that worked on
"Maleficent".
In a bid to gain more business and build a higher profile, a
unit of Mumbai-listed visual effects firm Prime Focus Ltd
PRFO.NS last year bought London-based Double Negative, the
studio that this year won an Oscar for best visual effects for
"Interstellar".
Others like Prana Studios have attracted investment from
some of the country's richest men - Reliance Industries' tycoon
Mukesh Ambani and Anand Mahindra of the diversified Mahindra
Group.
"Of course cost is a big factor," said Arish Fyzee, Prana's
chief executive and creative director, when asked about the
Indian animation industry's appeal. Both Mahindra and Reliance
declined to comment for this story.
"But ultimately, animation is about performance and
understanding cultural idioms and idiosyncrasies. The
combination is what our clients find helpful."
India's animation industry is almost as old as its movie
industry, the world's biggest in terms of revenue. In 1956, a
local movie studio invited a Disney animator to train them, and
a year later, India's first animated production "The Banyan
Deer" was made.
Over the years, studios have generated their own animated
movies, ranging from 2008's box office flop "Roadside Romeo", a
3-D cartoon movie jointly produced by Yash Raj films and Disney,
to this year's hit war epic "Bahubali", India's costliest film
on record.
Indian demand for local animation is dwarfed by business
from Hollywood, but some studios like Prana say working on their
own movies will elevate the industry's status, and their own
profile.
"It's a departure from waiting for work to come from the
United States," said Prana's Fyzee. The firm is creating its own
animated movie "Wish", about wishing wells.
($1 = 64.8817 Indian rupees)
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)